This past Mother’s Day got me thinking. Am I a good mom? I think I am. Really.
But don’t ask my daughter. I’m afraid of what she might say. Why? Because I’ve done horrible things to her? Because I’ve treated her worse than a stray dog? (Well, actually, I take in stray dogs so that reasoning doesn’t apply.) Or because I’ve beaten her with a belt every night?
Nope. Not a chance. Never happened.
Here’s the reason. I'm afraid she wouldn’t call me a good mom because…she’s a teenager.
I want to know what happened. I haven’t changed - much. I’m still the same old mom I was when she was ten years old, then eleven, then twelve. Yet something must have changed when she hit the magical age of thirteen. Or, if you listen to her, I changed.
Our relationship went off the edge of the road. Although I wouldn’t say our relationship is in the ditch yet, but the tires are running through gravel on the side of the highway and not on the road. She no longer comes up to me and hugs me for no reason. I don’t get the impromptu snuggle on the couch. Instead, I get one-word answers and eyes rolled in her head. Yep, she gives me teen-talk.
But am I worried? Will we ever get back the relationship we once enjoyed? I doubt it. Neither one of us will be the same person we are today. But that’s okay. I remember my own teenage years. I treated my own mom horribly. (Sorry, Mom!)
I know, however, that life has a way of evening things out. I know that my relationship with my own mother is now a wonderful, loving, friendship-type relationship. So I’m thinking, maybe mothers and daughters have to go through the teen years in order to come out on the other side as adult friends.
Keeping that theory in mind, whenever my daughter rolls her eyes or slams a door, I think of the future. We’ll have a solid relationship again one day. I know it.
Still, just in case we don’t, I’m hexing her with the same curse my mom put on me. Here goes.
“I hope you have a daughter just like you!”
Beverly Rae – http://www.beverlyrae.com/
Giggle, Gasp & Sigh with a Beverly Rae Romance
WAILING FOR LOVE - http://tinyurl.com/35hfxf (Rock star romance)
TOUCH ME - eBook at http://tinyurl.com/397k8j (Touch her and know your soul mate)
In Paperback at http://tinyurl.com/2zand4 (Amazon.com)
1 comment:
My mom's was worse - "I hope you have six just like you!" LOL
Well, I've got one, and she's not just like me. Thank God. :)
She and I were also very close through the teenage years. I was the Cool Mom. Somewhere along the way I stopped being the Cool Mom, and I can't put my finger on just when that changed!
She's 21 now. We never had the one-word, eye-rolling conflict many moms and daughters have, but I sense a distance now that wasn't there before. I understand it's natural, but I miss my buddy.
I think we'll come back around to that relationship someday. Probably when she has her own kids. :)
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