Definition of MOM

Monday - 12.10.12

It's amazing how when you become a mother of a teen or in my case a pre-teen, you start thinking back to when you were a teenager. Was I really like this? Did I really talk back this much? Dear God did I act so stupid? Then you realize YES!!!! You did, and you start feeling really bad for your own mom. The other night the March Hare was being mouthy, and well the situation played out something like this:

I had run to pick up food, upon my return I asked the March Hare to help the Dormouse clean up her room.

March Hare: "It never fails as soon as you walk in the door you start telling me what to do!"
Me: "Telling kids what to do is my job."
March Hare, in a smartbutt tone.: "No, cleaning up after kids is your job."
Me, sarcastic back, not that it helps: "If you look up mom in the dictionary you will find 'tells children what to do' in the definition."

I had walked in the garage while muttering the last sentence, when I walked back in, do you think he was helping his sister clean her room? No, of course not! He's such a smartbutt he was sitting on the ground with a dictionary! I grab the massive book, started smacking him with it (playfully of course) and threaten to get his father if he didn't get his butt in that room.

Now as funny as that all sounded, it got me thinking. Isn't it a knee slapper when your definition of "mom" changes once you've become one (can go for dad too). When your a kid your definition goes something like this "Ugh, that woman that forces me to eat yucky stuff, yells at me to clean up all the time, and tells me what I can and can't do."

When your mom you look at it totally different and with two perspectives:
1. As a mom: The unappreciated woman that slaves over half eaten meals, walks around the house twenty times a day cleaning up stuff she didn't put there and repeats herself a million times hoping half of what she says sinks into her kids brains.
2. A new appreciation for your own mom: Now you call her to get her opinion on what she thinks you should do, feel relieved when she offers to cook for you and want to kiss her feet when she happens to fold the piles of laundry that's been sitting on your couch for a week, when she stops by.

This conversation with my son made me laugh and taught me to remember to count my blessing. Kids will retain the things you tell them, mostly because you tell them a million times by the time they are an adult. I look back at the things my mother repeatedly told me and laugh because now I tell my kids the exact same things I swore I would never say. *Sigh* I love you mom.

Thanks for sharing another adventure with me!

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