Happy Corporate Holiday
12/5/13 08:41![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madrobinsOnce the kids got past the home-made breakfast and the handmade cards stage, I really had no use for Mother's Day. I know they love me (I mean, how could they help it?). But the cascade of "spend money! Remind Mom how special she is!" ads set my teeth on edge. It also becomes an excuse for a certain kind of family to take the work of the household caregivers for granted 364 days a year: "Whaddaya mean, set the table? I got you a card for Mother's Day."
Maybe I just haven't had any coffee yet, and that's why I'm cranky.
But everyone has a mother. Some people are mothers. And while our relationships with our mothers and with our kids may be mixed or full of tiny family-sized landmines, mothers are important. I have tried, God wot, to be a good parent. I have screwed up some, but on the whole I think I've done okay. And I love Sarcasm Girl and Avocado a lot, even when I think longingly of filing the serial numbers off my life and moving to Lubbock under an assumed name. But I've tried, mostly tried my best. And with my relationship with my own mother, which was, um, complex and garnered mixed reviews, I have to remind myself: no one gets out of bed in the morning thinking "How can I make my child miserable today?" And that the enormous majority of mothers don't walk off the job (one of my great-great grandmothers got so overwhelmed that she took to her bed for seven years, leaving her eldest daughter to fill the void--she would, I am informed, knead the bread if her daughter brought it in to her room on a board).
So rather than thanking Mom for all the vague fuzzy hearts-n-flowers Momness, I'd like to thank all the mothers I know for trying, being present, even when Lubbock or Tahiti or a half-hour nap beckons. Thanks, Moms, for all the trying, regardless of success. And thanks for getting out of bed the next day and doing it all again.
Maybe I just haven't had any coffee yet, and that's why I'm cranky.
But everyone has a mother. Some people are mothers. And while our relationships with our mothers and with our kids may be mixed or full of tiny family-sized landmines, mothers are important. I have tried, God wot, to be a good parent. I have screwed up some, but on the whole I think I've done okay. And I love Sarcasm Girl and Avocado a lot, even when I think longingly of filing the serial numbers off my life and moving to Lubbock under an assumed name. But I've tried, mostly tried my best. And with my relationship with my own mother, which was, um, complex and garnered mixed reviews, I have to remind myself: no one gets out of bed in the morning thinking "How can I make my child miserable today?" And that the enormous majority of mothers don't walk off the job (one of my great-great grandmothers got so overwhelmed that she took to her bed for seven years, leaving her eldest daughter to fill the void--she would, I am informed, knead the bread if her daughter brought it in to her room on a board).
So rather than thanking Mom for all the vague fuzzy hearts-n-flowers Momness, I'd like to thank all the mothers I know for trying, being present, even when Lubbock or Tahiti or a half-hour nap beckons. Thanks, Moms, for all the trying, regardless of success. And thanks for getting out of bed the next day and doing it all again.