Sunday, May 8, 2011

My Mom Rocks!

Mom and me in the early days.
Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there.... no matter how many legs or what kind of critters your "kids" are!

Special shout out to my own mom. Was (is) she the perfect mother? Not by a long shot. (She might disagree with me on that point just to be ornery. Orneriness DOES run in the family.) But to be fair, her kids were (are) far from perfect children! Mom had to make some tough choices in life, including the decision to become a single mother with preteen kids. That's a hard age for TWO parents to deal with, and my mom struggled alone through our unruly adolescence with varying degrees of effectiveness, success and failure. We certainly didn't make it easy for her, and sure... maybe she could have handled some things differently, but she did the best the she could. And she was there.

And ya know what? She kept a decent roof over our heads. She made sure we always had food to eat (even if we didn't like the dinner menu sometimes.... Sukiyaki? Super yucky!). She clothed us as fashionably as her small budget would allow. She got us medical treatment when were sick or did something stupid and got injured (which was luckily not often). She emphasized the importance of education, although we didn't always value that advice. Despite limited disposable income, she occasionally found ways to provide us with extras like a beach vacation, or a special treat now and then. Naturally, as teenagers, I'm sure we didn't appreciate everything she did for us then.

Mom also had some hard knocks in life after we left home... she's been through some incredibly difficult times, and she's survived them. A lesser woman may have crumbled and fallen apart, and I'm sure there were days when she probably wanted to do just that. But she managed to pick up the pieces and carry on. (The family ornery streak has served her well, I think!) I'm proud to be her daughter. And I'm really glad that she's been enjoying some well-deserved happiness these past 15 years or so, and is in good health and spirits!

I love you, Mom! Thanks for everything you've given me... tangible and intangible. You ROCK!!!

3 comments:

  1. Love this!! so glad you are doing it!!

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  2. I'm "the Mom", and I'm very proud of my daughter. She's grown up to have a great set of values, the kind of prson that I would want to be friends with even if we weren't related!

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