All of the sudden I've become a mom of three... only for a week that is. Each day that I'm with these kids I realize how clueless I really am about parenting, and yet, is any new parent really an expert? Treyson, age 8, had his first baseball game yesterday, so like a good mom, I wanted to go and support him. I took a seat on the bleachers close to his team, Marissa, age 4, ran off to the playground and Britton, 10, was playing with a friend, so I sat, observing. I watched all these moms there to see their sons play while keeping track of their other little ones, and the coaches (really just dads) kneeling down next to the players giving them advice, when I came to the realization that we're all just wingin' it. Most of the parents there were not much older than me it seemed, and yet in the eyes of a kid, they're all experts at parenting. Yet none of them have training or special knowledge that makes them parents - they just have kids they take care of.
Do you remember being little and subconsciously you knew that Mom knew everything? She always knew how to play games you learned, she knew the right words to say, how to cook everything just right even without a recipe, she could always help you with your homework... You didn't really have to wonder why or how she knews these things - she's a Mom, and mom's just know. Well I guess I still kinda thought that. I've watched my older cousins raise their kids sooo well and I'm in awe as to how. I realize they have their challenges, but I assumed the knowledge of how to raise a child was handed to them when they had kids I guess. As I have friends from high school getting married, one of my first thoughts is "how on earth are they going to raise children? There's no way I'm ready to have a family yet so how are they?"
Today is only the fourth day I've been watching these kids and each day I realize how much I really don't know. I'm just making it up as I go, and I'm sure these kids think I just know, because I'm a 'mom'. All of the sudden my mom is my hero. The older I've gotten, and after having moved out, the more I've realized how much she really does. And yet she never gets a simple 'thank you'. Word that mean so much, and they never hear them...I haven't heard them once all week. I can't even explain how much I admire not only my mom now, but all moms.
I guess this experience of being a temporary mom came at just the right time - right before Mother's Day. I wish I could thank my mom for everything, but I guess there will never be a way to do that...
Yep, most of the time we are all just "wingin' it". After I had Jack I would look at people who had kids and think, "I can't believe that having kids hasn't killed them."
ReplyDeletewhenever my friends have their first kid I just think oh my goodness they have no idea what is in store for them. It's the most difficult thing anyone could ever do. But people are doing it and have been doing it forever.
Everyday is a new challenge and I can honestly say that it took four years before I started feeling confidence in being a mom. And I am an expert at a very few things when it pertains specifically to my children and my children only.
The older you get and especially when you become a mom yourself the more you realize that your mom is just a person just trying her best and in the process doing a few extraordinary things like raising a child like you.