Tonight my kids both hugged me and said "Happy Mother's Day, Mom!" They're a few hours early, but who cares? I don't need cards or flowers - their loving arms and hugs meant everything.
They've been so great since my accident in January, I feel as though we should be celebrating "Kid's Day". They've both showered me with cold packs, blankets, helped me up the stairs, helped me out of the car, and every single day after school come home and said, "how's your arm, Mom?" They haven't missed a single day.
About six weeks after the accident, I had a "homemaker supervisor" in to "assess" our needs re meals and light housekeeping. She couldn't bend her mind around the fact that although my teens are 15 and 18, they have Down Syndrome, and are really like having 7 yr old twins. I explained over and over that I couldn't think of one friend whose 7 yr old was capable of cooking an entire family meal, or doing the family laundry. She seemed to think that I was somehow lacking as a mother because I haven't "trained" (her word, not mine, believe me) them to cook, clean, and do all our laundry. Well, they can make toast, sandwiches, cereal, and eat bananas. They like to vacuum. (it's still "fun")
However, if you have a seven year old who can buy your groceries, make a meat/potatoes/salad meal, and keep up with your laundry and dry-cleaning, I suggest you rent out him/her and make yourself a fortune. :) In the end, I got my "light housekeeper" and won the argument.
The truth is, this Mother's Day, I owe them for their loving kindness, their patience with me when I've been crabby over the ongoing pain, their smiles and hugs at the end of the school day. They've kept me going and given me a reason to get out of bed in the a.m. (even if I go back when the school bus goes). We pay so much commercial attention of being "thankful" for our mothers - and yes, they did raise us, and yes, we're raising our own - that I think we forget that without these warm bodies sitting around our dining table, we wouldn't have the privilege to be called Mom's.
If we can live up to their delight in us, their love for us, then we are truly blessed to be mothers. It's a symbiotic relationship; this giving of life, providing life, and nurturing it to adulthood. Without our kids, we wouldn't have this wonderful journey of learning about how to love what's important and lasting in our lives.
Even if they can't cook a pot roast. :)
2 comments:
What a great post! Kids have such great nurturing instincts, don't they? (Better than husbands, sometimes - LOL!)
I hope you continue to mend - you've had quite the time of it!!
Hi, Laurie, it's Lyn from the Journey Cycle class, dropping in to say hello--and happy Mother's Day, and get well, soon! I am very much enjoying your posts and would love to read your finished ms. My only child is 34 years old, so she is the Mom of the house now. I've been kicked upstairs to Nana! Nana, BTW, is a great job, much easier than Mom. Anyway, love the posts. Best of luck with your endeavors.
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