Mom

Isn't it funny how life comes full circle in so many ways? As we are growing up, we challenge our parents (mothers) , cause trouble maybe, demand our independence, fight with our siblings and frankly, drive them nuts. What did they always say? "Wait until you have kids." We thought, we will never be like them. We will never say,  "Eat your dinner. There are starving kids in the world." Or, "Stop acting like that or I will embarrass you in front of everyone here." (though, in fact, we are more terrified of being embarrassed ourselves but we can't let them know that.)" Or, "What in the world are you watching?You are going to turn into a boob sitting there all day in front of the TV" Or, "Those video games are going to ruin your brain." We said we would be the cool parents who will not nag our kids and let them do what they want. What we find out is that they are a reflection of us as parents. That kind of sucks. We can't catch a break. What I mean is, our parents didn't want us to make them look bad and now we realized that what our kids do or how they act or how they turn out is all about how we raise them. We can't be cool parents or people will look at them and say, "Jeez, who's raising those kids? A zookeeper?" So, here we are saying all of the things our parents said to us.

It's ok though. We take the the things that we feel were effective and reestablish them in our raising techniques and we add new ones that will enhance our parenting even more. Most importantly, we make mistakes. That's ok too. Our kids will say someday that we did crazy things. Truthfully, its the circle of life. If things were perfect, they wouldn't want to leave and we wouldn't be ready to let them go. There is enough good or great things that make them want to come back.

On this Mother's Day, I thank my mom for working hard at putting up with the craziness we may have caused and loving me through all of the things that make me who I am today. She unconditionally loved me and stills loves me today. Even better, she loves me through my children now. She helps me with them and loves them with all she has. Seeing her do that, makes me say that this is what I hope to do for my kids someday. I Love you MOM for your hard work and love.