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What is a Mother?
I would bet that every woman reading TriangleMom2Mom has a different definition of herself as a Mom. Some are lax. Some are strict. Some are organized. Some are chaotic. Some are strong disciplinarians. Some just go with the flow. Some yell. Some whisper. Some threaten. Most love and nurture. Of all my friends who are Moms (basically all of my friends, it seems), no two are the same.
On a completely unrelated note, some people ask me how I got into writing and why I feel compelled to write about everything. As for my writing skill, if you think it’s good, then credit my Mom. If you think it’s bad, well…never mind, I can’t say that in a G-rated post.
In order to conflate being a writer and a mother I would like to present you with one of my early writings about motherhood. (Conflate is a new word I learned this week in a letter to the editor. I was so excited about it that I blogged about it.) It just might clear up any confusion you have about how you define yourself as a Mom.
I was in third grade when I wrote it, so that would have made me about eight years old. Things were pretty controlled in those days. You stayed between the lines. (I actually got my only C in my life in hand-writing that year. This piece was written during the semester following the C, when I got an A.) They told you what to write about. You did it, the teacher graded it, you took it home and if your Mom was a good Mom like mine, she put it in a booklet with a pocket for work from each year of school so you could leaf through it almost 40 years later and muse about what you were thinking back then, what it was like, how much you remember and how much you’ve forgotten.
[Ed. note: After 50 years my Mom has my Dad trained to wash dishes, but seriously, I don’t remember my father ever washing dishes back in those days. It might have been my first effort at artistic license!]
After reading it, do you see? Isn’t it simple? It’s really all about the high heels!
Starting this week, Di appears on Wednesdays on TriangleMom2Mom. (It switched from Saturdays). Read more about Di at her blog Live and Let Di.
Live and Let Di
Diane is a TriangleMom2Mom featured blogger, appearing every Wednesday.
I try to be the voice of Moms with teens. My daughter Haley is 16. She's at that age where she is convinced that I know nothing. I'm thinking I'll seem a lot smarter when she's 22. We bond over Broadway shows. My son Rory is 13. He started reading the sports page when he was 5 and his passion for anything sports-related has grown ever since. This year he beat out 9 guys in their 40s to win his Fantasy Football League. Watch for him on ESPN in a few years.
My husband Hurley works from home, but travels quite a bit. When he's gone, I usually take a break from making dinner and cleaning the house. Oh, I don't do those things regularly when he's here either! Our parenting philosophy is "choose your battles." The only problem is that we often choose different battles. It keeps it interesting!!!
Comments
I love what you wrote! It is beautiful and that is great that you saved it.
I also think that each mom's definition of what a mother is changes as their children grow and they grow as a parent. I know that my definition has evolved over the past 7 years.
Love the 8 year old self. It provides a glimpse into what our children really see.
cute! when i was 8 i wrote books about dogs or crayfish. =)
I love it! My daughter has recently discovered high heals. She calls them bumping shoes, I think because the heel looks like a bump.
I'd love to see what my kids would have written about me when they were in 3rd grade..."A mother drinks wine and is nicer to me. A dad drinks beer and watches stupid shows on tv. A mom reads books and never does laundry. Dad doesn't read but he doesn't do laundry too. A mom makes Annie's mac and cheese for dinner. A dad gets take-out. A mom never showers or wears make up. A dad wears a tie. A mom tells me "because I said so" all the time. A dad tells me "because your mother says so."
That is adorable. I particularly liked the part about fathers washing dishes.