Notes to Mom - May 2010

10 Reasons Why I Love My Mom

    I will be the first to admit that the relationship between my mother and myself is somewhat on the lacking side.  My mom and I don't really argue, but we don't really talk, either.  Major emotional issues are not discussed with my mother.  My father is definitely not discussed with my mother.  Arguments with her are avoided altogether or quickly retreated from once they begin, because it's just safer that way…
    As much as she frustrates me and as often as she drives me completely up the wall, she is still my mother and I love her a great deal.  And, this is completely and totally dorky, I know, but the following is a list of all the reasons I can currently come up with as to why I love her and am proud of her:
    1.  She always had hot chocolate ready for my sisters and I, growing up, after we'd come inside from playing in the snow…  as a little kid, this was something I adored about my mom, so it makes the list… also, she used to braid my Barbie's hair for me when I couldn't do it.
    2.  At one point, when I was 14 or so, my mom had a friend who was a single mother; she had broken up with her boyfriend and had no place for herself or her 8 year old son to live, nor enough money to pay rent in an apartment, and so my mother asked the woman and her son to live with us.  They ended up staying with us for three or four years.
    3.  When my parents got divorced, my mom went back to work, after being a stay-at-home mom for 13 years, to support my sisters and I.
    4.  My mom went back to college, in her 40s, to get her nursing degree.  She graduated in 2005 with her RN.
    5.  She saved like crazy while I was in high school so that she could take my sisters and I on a vacation to Walt Disney World for a week.
    6.  When Brent died, my mom offered to take work off so she could go with me to the calling hours and funeral; she didn't even know Brent, really.
    7.  Before she started working evenings, my mom never missed any of my sisters' basketball games, soccer tournaments, track meets, or band concerts.  She went to all of our chorus concerts, marching band shows and award ceremonies.  I can count, on one hand probably, the number of times my dad showed up for all these things.
    8.  She made all sorts of sacrifices for the girls and myself; mom rarely bought things for herself.  She never had new clothes, never went out with friends…  I was startled, a few weeks ago, when I learned that she's gone 3 years without getting new glasses, even though her prescription's changed again, because my sisters and I need new glasses every year.
    9.  My mom says what she thinks.  I can honestly tell you that my mom makes her feelings known.  There are plenty of times where I'd much rather not know her opinion on everything, but that's another story…
    10.  She has always been 100%, completely encouraging of me in everything I do.  My mom has always told me that so long as I did my best at everything, that'd be enough for her.  And, for my mother, my best has been enough; regardless of how it measures up in comparison with others.