Nah, probably not completely, or even close for that matter. Its something we all fear and hope never happens! That dreaded statement, "I sound just like my mom!" And there have been occasions when I could see her lurking around the corners of my mind.
Growing up, my mom was known throughout our circles of friends as the strict one. I am talking if I could have been the girl in the plastic bubble, because I would have been safer, she would have done it! We were never allowed to walk to the corner store by ourselves, or ride our bikes to our friends houses. Going to the mall with a friend, not a chance! And I understand to a point now, that a lot of this protectiveness was born out of fear for our safety. Not a lot of this changed as we grew up, we still couldn't ride with our friends to the mall until they had been driving for a year, and while my friends were out TP-ing eachothers houses on the weekend (don't worry we always helped clean it up the next day!) I was told proper young ladies did NOT need to be out at that time of night.
But on the other end of things, I was close with my parents, we talked about things, crushes, boys, dreams, goals, etc. And my mom always tried to do what she thought was right. A little misguided perhaps from events in her own childhood, but well-meaning.
One thing I remember was that my mom went out of her way to make really GREAT lunches. Most of the kids in our classes had the average sandwich, chips, milk and cookie. Maybe hot lunch if it was edible. Maybe the occasional bagel or muffin.
My Mom got creative, we had whole wheat fritters cut into animal shapes with a yummy PB spread, oatmeal bread with strawberry creamcheese, and ham and cheese roll-ups. And I am sure other things I am forgetting about. But I remember how all our friends were in awe of our lunches, they were never ordinary and always good and healthy too!
Now, as I am packing my boys lunches for the first time ever, for MOPS, I have been thinking about those fun things I had to eat. I wrote down the recipes for these items at one time and now I would love to find them and make them for my boys lunches!
I know alot of things my parents did, we probably won't do with our kids. But that is what being a parent is, learning from our parents mistakes, tweaking the rules we lived with and making new ones for our own families.
My sister and I were loved, and even though we didn't have all the things our friends did, we still had quite a lot.
3 comments:
Wonderful post, Posh Mama, loved reading your memories of your mom and how you relate these things to your kids. As one who no longer has her mom with her, let me just say that it's not such a bad thing to be compared to your mom. From reading this, it sounds like you have the best of your mom in you :)
My parents were fairly strict themselves, and I had a pretty good relationship with them as well, where we talked about things and actually spent time together when I was a teenager. Now my mom is one of my best friends.
I really can relate to this post big time, in fact it hits so close to home, I could've written something very much like it. :)
i am a very different kind of mom than my mom was, but still, i think, in one way or another, we all grow up to be our mothers. the trick, i guess, is to try to make it good things about mom that we emulate. it sounds like you're doing well.
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