simonejester (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
simonejester) wrote2010-07-17 05:37 am
simonejester) wrote2010-07-17 05:37 am
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I'm tempted to give my mom the blanket I'm making her instead of selling it.
After reading this thread at ontd_p (and the huge one at the beginning), I'm feeling a surge of gratitude for my mom's simple give-a-damn. Now, we never lived in poverty, but between divorcing from my dad and marrying my stepdad, my brother and I just barely didn't qualify for reduced-price lunch at school. Also, for I-don't-take-it-for-granted privileges like her reading to me since before I was born, for paying attention to us, for having books in our home, for taking us to the library once a week when my appetite for books exceeded her budget for not-needs.
I'm even grateful that she has worked full time for that long. My mom wishes she could have been a stay-at-home mom, but I think she set a better example for us (and especially me as a girl) as a working mom. It taught me, even though it wasn't really explicitly stated, that I should go to college and get a good job, and not to expect that a man will take care of me.
I'm also super grateful for the awesomeness (well, most of the time) of my mom's boss and co-workers. My mom is a police secretary and she's been allowed various kinds of flexibility in her hours, and if my brother or I ever needed to come home in the middle of a school day, her boss let her go right then. If she needed a sick day to take care of one of us, she got the sick day. Granted, she's worked at the same job for over 22 years, which can be seen as a privilege (though I honestly think when she retires it'll take two people to replace her, she works her butt off for realsies), but still, it's great to have a boss/employer that's that understanding. (And it helps to have a small city and therefore not a huge PD, so everyone knows everyone else and their family.)
Anyhow...just saying what I should have said on Mother's Day and her birthday and, well, way more often than I do.
Thank you, Mommy. I'm sorry I was such a brat most of the time.
P.S. This was not a crack at stay-at-home moms or dads, especially since I might wind up being a stay-at-home mom myself someday, what with the job market being le suck and Chris having pretty good job security with the Army. I just think that I picked up on the best lesson one can about single motherhood.
I'm even grateful that she has worked full time for that long. My mom wishes she could have been a stay-at-home mom, but I think she set a better example for us (and especially me as a girl) as a working mom. It taught me, even though it wasn't really explicitly stated, that I should go to college and get a good job, and not to expect that a man will take care of me.
I'm also super grateful for the awesomeness (well, most of the time) of my mom's boss and co-workers. My mom is a police secretary and she's been allowed various kinds of flexibility in her hours, and if my brother or I ever needed to come home in the middle of a school day, her boss let her go right then. If she needed a sick day to take care of one of us, she got the sick day. Granted, she's worked at the same job for over 22 years, which can be seen as a privilege (though I honestly think when she retires it'll take two people to replace her, she works her butt off for realsies), but still, it's great to have a boss/employer that's that understanding. (And it helps to have a small city and therefore not a huge PD, so everyone knows everyone else and their family.)
Anyhow...just saying what I should have said on Mother's Day and her birthday and, well, way more often than I do.
Thank you, Mommy. I'm sorry I was such a brat most of the time.
P.S. This was not a crack at stay-at-home moms or dads, especially since I might wind up being a stay-at-home mom myself someday, what with the job market being le suck and Chris having pretty good job security with the Army. I just think that I picked up on the best lesson one can about single motherhood.