I've always worked at least six days a week. I did it before I got married and I did it before I had kids so my transition into motherhood was easier than most. I did take time off when each of my kid's were born... they were the quickest six weeks of my life! It's tough going back to work when you still can't sit down on a hard surface without grimacing...thank goodness I have always been a server and never had to sit down (I wanted to, I just couldn't.)
It's pretty much okay at first, they just eat sleep and poop. It gets a bit harder when they learn to walk (you have to chase after them) and even harder when they learn to talk. My kid's haven't stopped asking for things since they learned the three words "Can I have."
We started having kids in the mid eighties. Most jobs all had 401K plans and great insurance. Ten dollar co pays and free prescriptions. Tim moved up steadily and my wit and work ethic always served me well as I served the masses.
I would have to say as far as Moms go I was about a nine when the kids were little. I was always one of the room mothers, worked the Fall Carnivals and Field Days, attended every award ceremony and had lunch with them at school at least once a week.
Middle school was a bit easier, they would KILL you if you showed up in their lunch room. Fine by me!
High school is a different ball game. Where I live they have the insane idea it is okay to have 3,000 teenagers under one roof with two resource officers and a dog to patrol them all. Heck...sometimes I feel like I need two resource officers to help keep my own teens safe with the world going to hell in a hand basket... they can keep their dog, I have two.
Luckily my oldest got a job at the age of fifteen and after getting his first paycheck caught on quick. A job equals money!
My next oldest , who is so intelligent it makes me wonder about a baby swap at the hospital has refused to use his gift since he hit middle school (and he hit middle school hard, like a brick wall.) Granted the principal was a big blow hard and we had quite a few meetings with him, often at his request but sometimes at ours. I waited on him recently in the restaurant I work at and he at least had the
decency to act like he didn't know me...I felt like sending him a thank you note.
My middle child is TRULY a middle child (seemingly lost in the shuffle of the grand scheme) but of his own choosing. He could be the next Bill Gates or the next Warren Buffet but chose the road of a lonely anarchist. I can understand a lot of his dismay and disgust but with the great mind he was blessed with he could be one of the few that could change the world, not just bitch about it. I pray for him daily and hope he wakes up and realizes his potential...a Mom can hope!
Then I have my youngest, a daughter. She came into this world a bit shy of 3 months early and almost killed me AND her. She started out a tiny human so small her head fit into the palm of my hand. She didn't say a word until she was two and then it was only when we dragged them out of her. She was due on my own Mother's birthday and I was elated to be having a girl to name after the Mother I lost when I had just turned seventeen. When Massey turned six she started talking and hasn't stopped since. She has great dreams and grand desires, and is extremely committed to both. That's the only reason I let her get away with her room looking like a bomb shelter (after the bomb hit.) She is on track and no one can stop her. All I can say is "You go girl, you make me proud...and don't have kids til you're thirty five!"
I had two great parents, but my Momma was "the bomb.com" if you talk about a Super Mom, that was her. If you talk about a Super Wife, that was her. If you talk about a Super Friend...that was her. You ask anyone that knew her and I can almost guarantee they will agree. My Diddy (as we called him) absolutely adored her and in return she adored him back just as much if not more. She never worked until we were all in junior high. She WAS the room mom, she WAS the PTA president, she sewed the uniforms for all the cheerleaders and majorettes, she sewed all the gowns for my sister who in high school was like a sincere Kardashian without the boob job and on every Homecoming and Valentine court. She was (and still is) naturally beautiful and widely loved.
Momma never had to sew gowns for me (except the bridesmaid dress I wore in my sister's wedding) but loved us all the same. I was a skinny kid with a big mouth in high school...jeez I guess I've come full circle!
Back to my original point...Being a Mom is hard, I don't care if you clock in or not!
I wouldn't go back on being a mom for anything in the world. If I didn't have kids, who would choose my nursing home? Now if that's not encouragement enough for them all to phenomenally succeed, what is...have you seen the cost of a retirement facility?
Getting up tomorrow (hopefully) and doing it all again!
A personal shout out to a Mom who , as my daughter would say is the bomb diggity...Get feeling better Tammy, the troops are waiting!
Til next time, "About an eight on the MOM scale" tonight (I didn't cook dinner) COTTON!
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