"M" Is For The Million Things She Gave Me

Families are weird. At least all the ones I am in, have created, or hang around with. Of course, the popular media offerings we get of families don’t really show what most people experience--they either depict sunshine and nurturing or violence and depravity. We don’t see many movies or shows with people who kind of have good stuff much of the time but still have rough edges that peek out pretty regularly. You know, what your family usually looks like. So, the big, complicated messiness that is family makes official days of celebration a spectrum of experiences and emotions. Today is Mother’s Day, one of those aforementioned official days complete with one of those previously mentioned spectrums. It should be easy, right? Everyone is here because a woman became, again or for the first time, a mother. That’s simple enough, but everything after that moment is part of the package, too. The mother-child relationship is the most fundamental of all relationships. Nothing can replace a healthy bond and nothing can compensate for a troubled one. Even if you are fortunate to have a really lovely one, it is still a lifelong push and pull for establishing the right balance of independence and connection. Given all this, it seemed too perilous to choose a mom book for today. But, a book about how weird families are is perfect. Robert Munsch’s Good Families Don’t tackles the expectations and realities of families. Although it’s a Canadian family, so the rules might be different.

P.S. Happy Mother's Day to all who care for others.

http://robertmunsch.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Good-Families-Dont-Robert-Munsch/dp/0440405653

Mom Genes

A few days after my first Mother’s Day, my middle brother sent me a card apologizing for the delayed greeting and telling me he had “completely overlooked the fact” that I was a mother now. It was weird for me, too. Mother’s Day is when you call your mom, write your grandma, and watch all the mothers get a flower at church. Since I was on my own with this month-old baby, I might have passed the day without marking my mother status had it not been for my oldest younger brother. At some point in the night, he snuck in and placed a card from “the baby” in her crib for me to find in the morning. It was an unexpected surprise, but also a singular moment realizing that for the rest of always I would be someone for whom Mother’s Day is applicable. Which was really good, if surreal, news. I had wanted to be a mother my whole life, ever since I could remember. I had baby dolls of all types and sizes who needed my constant care. I even chose to be a teacher because it seemed the most mom-friendly job you could have (which has proven true more often than not, so score on that one). All of these things add up to one very good reason to read P.D. Eastman’s Are You My Mother? to my little Scarlett. And to get dressed up that first Mother’s Day so I could go get my flower.

http://www.amazon.com/Are-You-Mother-P-D-Eastman/dp/0394800184

http://book.consumerhelpweb.com/authors/eastman/eastman.htm