Always My Mom

Kids ask why. A lot. Why? No idea. But they do. I did. And when I was young, my mother’s standard answer was usually, “Because I’m the mom.” Now, this wasn’t a dictatorial “do as I say or else” sort of response on her part. She was simply explaining that because of her role as the mother, it was, in fact, her job to make such decisions. And that was as much of an answer as we were ever going to get as to why we couldn’t, for example, run through the sprinklers in early March or have Cookie Crisp for every meal.

While I remember this standard answer from my childhood, I don’t remember the follow up she says she often gave—which was, “When you’re the mom, you can decide.” My parenting experience (which pretty much consists of a host of online articles I’ve read for fun, so I know what I’m talking about here, totally) makes me believe this was a good move. She wasn’t taking my power, see? She wasn’t exerting control at the expense of my budding autonomy. She was simply taking her turn. And I’d get my turn. It was all very fair, this world my mom created for us.

One day though, the story goes, my mom made the standard pronouncement at whatever typical 3-year-old “why” question I’d asked: “Because I’m the mom. When you’re the mom, you can decide.” And I responded to her something like, “Ok, when I’m the mom and you’re the kid, I'll choose.” 

"When you're the kid"—come again? Apparently I took the “taking turns” idea pretty literally as a kid! It does make some logical sense, though. Clearly there were two roles (mom and kid) and two people (me and mom), so when it was my turn to be the mom, we’d just switch. Obviously. I mean, it’s not that complicated, people! (This is where 3-year-old me puts her hands on her hips and stomps a foot in your general direction.)

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

My response makes me laugh every time I hear about it. Kid-misconceptions are awesome, and I love hearing this 

one of mine. I’m sure it’s not so unusual for a kid not to have figured out the whole family generational structure thing (I had a young cousin who declared he was going to be the Grandpa to his oldest sister’s new baby, so… yeah). Still, I love that I somehow didn’t 

get it, that my mom would always be the mom. Always.

And, I’ve got to say, all these years later I’m super glad she is. Still. And always will be. My mom.