When I was home last weekend, she kindly reminded me on multiple occasions that I hadn't written a post in a while. "Yeah, mom, I know." That's often my response. What she doesn't know is that I usually follow, "Yeah, mom, I know" with a silent "Oh crap, she's right" in my head. Or maybe she does know. MOMS KNOW EVERYTHING.
But this post is for my Mom, not because she "politely reminded me," but because it is Mother's Day. So, if she wants a post, then it's going to be about her.
It's no secret that as you get older - or perhaps become a mother yourself (which I am not. Let's not start the rumor mill here, folks) - you come to better appreciate all that your mom did for you growing up, and continues to do today.
I can't get over how much my Mom would cart me across town for school, practice, shopping, meeting friends, etc. etc. etc. And she'd even let me control the radio. Geez, if someone asks me to meet them in a different quadrant of DC which requires me to switch trains, I get bent of shape. My mom used to make the 30+ minute drive to my elementary school every time I forgot my lunch, didn't have a paper signed (before I learned to forge, obviously) or had a headache.
Every time I get sick I really appreciate my Mom. When I had the stomach flu last year, she was able to talk me off of the bathroom floor, back into bed, and even forced me to drink my Gatorade...all via phone. How does she do that? Although, I do miss sick days from when I was little and she would go to the library to rent VHS copies of Ramona & Beezus and The Babysitters Club for me to watch in bed. (I would totally still watch those. Ann M. Martin stands the test of time and you know it's true.)
So, in honor of my Mom, I have a few things I'd like to say to her. I'm sure many of you can relate. (Well, maybe not with #5)
Dear Mom,
1. I'm sorry I used to peel giant holes in the wall during naptime. (Not the wallpaper, the wall.) Although, in my defense, I did tell you that I wasn't ready for a nap. But I'm sorry you suffered the consequences.
2. Thank you for being firm about not buying me stupid things I told you I needed. Like, when everyone in 5th grade got fake beepers. You refused to buy it for me. And thanks to you, I didn't look like an idiot.
3. On the flip side, thank you for understanding when things were important to me in a silly, ridiculous tween way. For example, when we drove to four different stores during back-to-school shopping so that I could find the penny-loafer-heels I wanted.
4. Thank you for coming to every long recital, game, show choir performance and always saying it was lovely - even when we all know it wasn't because it was really off-key and was in a sequin vest.
5. I'm sorry I ate the chapstick that you left on the table that one time (two times?) when I was little. (And I'm sorry my sister saw it and years later told the class she was teaching so that when I showed up to visit they said, "You're Ms. Thomson's sister. You eat chapstick.") It just smelled so delicious.
6. Thank you for making a big deal of every birthday, good grade, graduation (5th grade to college), new job, etc. I may not have realized at the time how lucky I was to always be made to feel so special.
7. Thanks for making me go to church, even when I made it difficult on Sunday mornings and it would've been easier just to leave me home.
8. Thanks for making me "at least try" certain activities, but allowing me to stop when I realized they weren't for me. R.I.P oboe, softball, basketball. (I think we all knew my basketball career would be short-lived. Pun intended.)
9. Thank you for putting up with my teenage love of The Backstreet Boys. I see teens today screaming over One Direction and realize I wouldn't have been as patient as you were. You understood when I plastered my walls with photos, my friends and I had to wake up at 4 a.m. to go buy tickets (and needed a ride) and that we needed to go to the concert and have a slumber party on a school night.
10. I'm sorry for every time I screamed, kicked, or talked back in public. In private too, but especially in public. And I apologize for every eye-roll, interruption, and "Yeah, duh, whatever."
And thank you for still understanding that even now, as a 29-year-old adult who should be a fully functioning, independent human being, I still need you. I need you to tell me I'm "not dying" when I'm home sick, to answer silly questions about cooking that even an idiot should know, to send me recipes so that I don't have to eat frozen meals, and to listen to me vent about how hard it is to be a grown-up who has to go to work and pay bills and deal with people. You are the very best.
Thank you for everything, Mom. Happy Mother's Day! XOXO
(Also, when you get home from church, can you call me? I don't understand the broil function on the oven. Need you to talk me through it.)
 |
| Mom with my nephew Charlie and my niece-dog Belby. One of my favorite pictures of my mom. (Photo credit: Pete Thomson) |
Extra love to my friends who are missing their moms today, warm thoughts and wishes to my friends whose paths to motherhood are taking longer than they'd hoped, and Happy Mother's Day to all the moms and moms-to-be.
No comments:
Post a Comment