It's Mother's Day!

Everyone seems to be blogging about their mothers today. I will now join the crowd.

My mother was great. She still is actually, but right now I want to focus on the mom who brilliantly raised my three sisters and I (and several other kids for various lengths of time), and taught us all sorts of useful and interesting things about the world along the way.

Before I was thrust upon this world my mom made the decision that she wanted to stay home and raise her kids herself. Her motives could certainly have been economic. As young parents, she and my dad were still transitioning from being students into real adults. But by this time, she had a college degree in education so she could easily have started her career, could have afforded day care, and spent time with us before and after work. But I think it's more likely the case that she just couldn't stand the thought of spending 8+ hours every day away from her kids. She also could have stayed home until we were ready to go off to school and started her career then. But by that time we were just so irresistibly charming and angelic that she still wanted us around and home schooled all four of us simultaneously for 10 years! Looking back I think it was probably an incredibly challenging undertaking. She frequently took flak and was under scrutiny from the local public school districts, had to create, maintain, and administer four simultaneous curricula (not to mention procuring textbooks and materials), and because of the decision not to work, often faced budgetary challenges. It amazes me that despite all this, my mom managed to expose us to an extraordinarily wide range of enriching experiences that would almost certainly have been missed with a more "hands off" upbringing. She always had a soft-spot for homeless animals (to my dad's frequent chagrin), loved the outdoors, was brilliantly resourceful, and gave us a healthy curiosity about the world around us.

So yesterday, as I was sewing a hole in my jeans (thanks mom!) I started thinking about all the skills I wouldn't have, all the perspectives I would have missed, and all the fresh chicken eggs I wouldn't have collected, and starting formulating the following homage. It's a little silly, and there are lots of inside jokes (annoying!) but sums up quite nicely the way I feel about my mom. Lyrics are below.




You taught me how to read and write,
That I should share and be polite.
I always put my napkin on my lap. ('cause that's 300 points)

You showed me how to patch my jeans,
To sew a whip stitch on a seam.
Sometimes I still thread a needle just for fun.

(Take a bite, take a drink...)

We camped in tents and cooked on fires,
Hiked o'er hills through marshy mires.
We bartered just like trappers in the depths of Appalachia.

I'm pretty sure that I would know
The things I'd need to make a go
In a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

(Take a bite, take a drink...)

Sound of Music learnt by rote.
All my friends are hens and goats.
But I would never trade it for the world.

Now I guess I'm all grown up,
Don't see each other quite as much.
Makes it that much nicer when we do.

And even though we're miles apart,
I still keep you in my heart.
I can't believe that I just wrote that sappy lyric.

(Take a bite, take a drink...)

Comments

shari said…
"... my sisters and me..."
You're the bestestabublia. <3

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