Motherhood or How I Made it Through the Unknown

This is a test run, a short piece I wrote several years ago.


Mother - a female parent; a woman in relation to her child; a woman in a position of authority.

This is how Webster define mother. Well, it is obvious Mr. Webster didn't live in my house! A woman in a position of authority - HAH! A more accurate description would be 'a woman at the hands of her children'.

My house was a zoo, complete with monkeys (children), chicken (husband, John) and a keeper (me)! My children are now adults and both wonderful young men. I don't know how I survived but I would not have changed a thing!

I didn't have much experience with children when I gave birth to my first, Todd, now 30. I had grandiose ideas of how life should be and the first year I could have won the 'Mother of the Year' award. That kid never wore paper diapers, I cooked and pureed all of his food, no store bought baby for for MY baby! I also handwashed all of his diapers and clothing.

He was a great baby by any standards. He refused the bottle at ten months and drank from a sippy cup. However, he refused to give us his pacifier. He would not accept any pacifier. It had to be a certain one. I had been given a baby shower and in one of the gifts was a pacifier/rattle in one. The pacifier could be found in only one place - on the other side of town! Heaven help us if we lost it and we invaribly did, usually in the middle of the night. He would cry until John or I made the thirty mile trek to buy another!

Od course, being the perfect mother, I no longer worked. I wanted no one else to care for my baby! Her was a charmer. He crawled, he toddled, he walked - then, he began to talk, constantly! At the age of 18 months he was asking amazing questions and he demanded answers.

I got pregnant with with Kevin, now 27, when Todd was 22 months. This kid would be in constant motion before and after he was born! By the time he arrived, I was exhaused and the poor little baby never saw a cloth diaper and all he ate came from a jar. My perfect mothering days were long over!

Kevin began crawling early and walked alone at 10 months. He was also a climber, curious by nature. Once I went to the bathroom and when I got back to the kitchen, Kevin had climbed onto the kitchen counter. From that moment on, he went to the bathroom with me. At that point, the adventures of motherhood were coming on strong!

My kids loved the outdoors. We had a swing, sandbox and dozens of trees. I climbed trees more than once to get them down because they were stuck. I always knew where they were because of blabbermouth Todd. Many a time I wanted to duct tape his mouth shut!

As they got older, they began going to neighborhood children's houses and I liked it - a lot! One day, I got a phone call from my neighbot telling me to look out the window. Walking down the street were two little boys, covered from top to bottom with mud. All you could see was the whites of their eyes. They had found a mudhole! Laughing inside, I had to maintain myself and scold them. I made them strip naked and hosed them off before taking them inside and putting them in the tub.

We would go out to dinner on payday usually McDonalds, but one time we got all dressed up and went to a nice restaurant. John ordered a bourbon and water and Todd piped up, striaght faced and said, "I'll have a coke and water." We all broke down and howled.

Disclipline at our house was a disaster. I asked them once to clean their room and within an hour I returned - to the same mess.

"I thought I told you to clean up this mess?" I asked.

Kevin, his little angel face looking at me said "You aren't yelling yet."

We always encouraged individualism in our children and being old hippies, we introduced them to music at an early age. As they got into their teens, somehow things just weren't the same. The music they listened to was different, their hairstyles seemed alien to us. Oh God! I was turning into my mother!

We went through rat tails, Mohawk, crew cuts hair styles, the music changed from the peaceful music of the 60's to the heavy metal, rap, aternative music of their generation. I cringed at some of the things I saw, but I also saw my boys turn away from the people who were known to be trouble makers.

I am proud to see that the boys I raised have listened to the things their dad and I taught them. They were and as far as I know still are, tolerant of all people and recognize people's rights to live their lives their way. They treat all people with kindness and dignity.

Todd is now married and a 5th grade teacher. He and his wife have 2 kids, Luke 4 and Lily 10 months. Kevin lives in Pueblo, Colordao with his partner and her 4 kids.

Yes, our lives was zoo like, but I know it was a good one and will continue to be as long as I live.