Mean Moms

I just received this email from my Mom and in honor of Mothers day and all you 'mean' moms out there...this is for you


Mean Moms

Someday when my children are old enough to
understand the logic that motivates a parent,
I will tell them, as my Mean Mom told me: I loved you
enough . . . to ask where you were going, with
whom, and what time you would be home.

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
and had eyes in the back of her head. 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!




Life is a chain of moments; it isn't only survival