I loved you enough...
Someday when my children are
old enough to understand
the logic that motivates a parent,
I will tell them:
I loved you enough...to ask where
you were going,
with whom, and what time you
would be home.
I loved you enough...to insist
that you save your
money and buy a bike for yourself
even though we could
afford to buy one for you.
I loved you enough...to be silent
and let you discover
that your new best friend was
a creep.
I loved you enough...to make
you go pay for the
bubble gum you had taken and
tell the clerk, "I stole
this yesterday and want to pay
for it."
I loved you enough...to stand
over you for two hours
while you cleaned your room,
a job that should have
taken 15 minutes.
I loved you enough...to let you
see anger,
disappointment and tears in
my eyes. Children must
learn that their parents aren't
perfect.
I loved you enough...to let you
assume the
responsibility for your actions
even when the
penalties were so harsh they
almost broke my heart.
But most of all, I loved you
enough...to say NO when I
knew you would hate me for it.
Those were the most
difficult battles of all.
I'm glad I won them, because
in the end you won, too.
And someday when your children
are old enough to
understand the logic that motivates
parents, you
will tell them.............
Was your Mom mean? I know mine
was.
We had the meanest mother in
the whole
world! While other kids ate
candy for breakfast, we
had to have cereal, eggs, and
toast. When others had
a Pepsi and a Twinkie for lunch,
we had to eat
sandwiches.
And you can guess our mother
fixed us a
dinner that was different from
what other kids had, too.
Mother insisted on knowing where
we were at all times.
You'd think we were convicts
in a prison. She had to
know who our friends were, and
what we were doing with
them. She insisted that if we
said we would be gone
for an hour, we would be gone
for an hour or less.
We were ashamed to admit it,
but she had the nerve to
break the Child Labor Laws by
making us work. We had
to wash the dishes, make the
beds, learn to cook,
vacuum the floor, do laundry,
empty the trash and all
sorts of cruel jobs.
I think she would lie awake at
night thinking of more
things for us to do. She always
insisted on us
telling the truth the whole
truth, and nothing but the
truth. By the time we were teenagers,
she could read
our minds.
Then, life was really tough!
Mother wouldn't let our friends
just honk the horn
when they drove up. They had
to come up to the door so
she could meet them. While everyone
else could date
when they were 12 or 13, we
had to wait until we were
16. Because of our mother we
missed out on lots of
things other kids experienced.
None of us have ever been caught
shoplifting,
vandalizing other's property
or ever arrested for any
crime. It was all her fault.
Now that we have left
home, we are all educated, honest
adults. We are
doing our best to be mean parents
just like Mom was.
I think that is what's
wrong with the world today. It
just doesn't have enough
mean moms.