Sunday is Mother’s Day, a special time to honor the women who gave us life and have been a big influence. Although my mother passed away more than twenty years ago, her voice is still in my head. I can’t leave the house without going to the bathroom and getting a drink just like I was admonished as a child.
Mom. she never wanted to be called Mother or Ma, taught me many things but probably the most valuable was to be myself. When I was a teenager, Mom said, “No,” to a lot of my requests. It did no good to argue, “But everybody else can.”
Her response was always, “You’re not everybody else.”
My mother’s example also led to my being a tomboy, a term used during the forties and fifties for a girl who dressed and behaved more like a boy. Mom showed me that a woman could wear pants and work on the farm beside a man all week but on Saturday night, she donned a dress and high heels to dance with her husband.
I was prepared to be a housewife when I married Ken because Mom had trained me to cook meals, clean the house plus wash and iron clothes.
When I became a mother, Mom taught me to make formula, change a diaper and give a baby a bath in a kitchen sink. After our family included three children, my friends envied me because my folks were often over-night, babysitters when Ken and I wanted to go out with other adults. My parents thought of it as enjoying their only grandchildren.
A time came in our lives when roles were reversed–I cared for my mother. I was fortunate to have her in my life until she turned ninety and I was sixty-five.
How were you influenced by your mother?