A Tribute to Mothers
by sky
Recently, I came across some… well, disturbing news: My mother is reading this column. It’s not so bad, I guess. At first, I was horrified, that perhaps my vulgar vocabulary had offended the woman who bore me. Not so. In fact, she had suggestions, criticisms, and maybe even a couple of compliments. I love my mom. I know I’m one of those lucky gals that has a mother who is not only my parental figure, but one of my best friends. I realize this sounds as corny as a Hallmark card with cursive, rhyming words on it… but I mean it. She’s hip, she’s funny, she’s worldly, beautiful, and she’s got more class than most women on the planet. There. It needed to be said.
So, with Mother’s Day just around the corner (May 13th for those of you slackers who forgot) I urge all women and men to pay homage to their moms. These women sacrificed much of their lives for us. They put up with the diapers, the soccer games, the girl scouts, the lying, the starving, the tantrums, the… well, you get the idea. And somehow, they kept us, and still like us.
After I finished being a psycho teenager, I realized I should probably thank my mother for putting up with all of my misbehavings, which, incidentally, started at a young age. Case in point: when I was three, my mother and I were in a Baltimore train station when she told me not to touch anything. She described the station as “one of the filthiest places on earth.” So I said, “Mom, look! I’m not touching it… I’m licking it!” –I licked the station windows. As the years rolled on, the stories were a bit more dramatic…there was my clepto stage, cheerleading traumas, and then of course, getting arrested for being drunk in public as a freshman in high school.
A friend of mine explains it’s nearly unavoidable to turn into our parents to some degree. “It’s a sick legacy,” she said. “The things my mom used to do that would embarrass me… I now do on my own.” To some degree, we are what we know… and we definitely know our moms.
I have no offspring at this time and feel motherhood should not be taken lightly. I believe parenthood must be incredibly rewarding, and I believe it must get better once your children are old enough to appreciate the hell they’ve put you through.
What does my mother say about motherhood? She was not available for an interview at the time of this article. But, she did leave me a message on my machine saying she’s getting ready for me to visit this weekend. She put clean sheets on the bed, shined up the bathroom and can hardly wait for me to get there. Yes, we’ll have a blast together. No, I won’t bring up the subject of me vomiting in the back of a police car at age 16. But if I did —- she’d laugh now. She’s my mom.
