Operation Cleanup!

You know, with all the back to school hub bub and the things I wrote in my last blog School Days School Days , I decided to go through all the mish mash of “stuff” on my desk (as you can see it’s pretty messy) and weed it all out.  After all, I cannot ask my kids to get organized for school and homework if I can’t set a good example now can I?

Well, I came across an email that my mother-in-law sent me a few years ago about being a “mean mom”.  I chuckled reading it back then (my husband laughed too and said he had a mean mom~ha ha) and decided to save it because it reminded me of my growing up and how “mean” my mother was and I thought someday I would share it with my kids (of course when they were old enough to appreciate it).  With the start of a new school year comes new routines due to new time schedules, varying amounts of homework between the kids, getting out of the stay up late ~ sleep late routine and trying to get them to get their household chores done now that time is limited … I have to say it’s like going to the dentist; I don’t like it and neither do they. So now is as good a time as any….

(¯`v´¯)*•¸.•*¨`♥
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Let me share some of the email ~ What 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 your new friend was a creep.

I loved you enough to make you pay for the bubble gum you had taken and tell the clerk, “I stold this yesterday and I 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 mintues.

I loved you enough to let you see anger, disappointment, and tears in my eyes. Children must learn their parents are not perfect.

I loved you enough to let you assume the responsibiltiy for your actions even when the penalties were so harsh they almost broke my heart.

Most of all, I loved you enough to say No when I knew you would hate me for it.

(¯`v´¯)*•¸.•*¨`♥
`*.¸.* *•¸.•*¨`♥ *•¸.•*¨`♥

Was your mom mean? I know mine was~while other kids ate candy for breakfast, we had to have cereal, eggs and toast.  Other kids had soda and twinkies for lunch and we had to eat a sandwich and some fruit…and of course dinner was made for us, not take out, and we had to help and I am certain the other kids didn’t have to do that.

She had the nerve to ask us to do chores on Saturday, in addition to the chores we had to do every day of the week, like stacking wood or shoveling coal into the cellar, cleaning our rooms and making our beds, organizing our dresser drawers and closets, laundry, spring cleaning, fall cleaning, shoveling, vacuuming, dusting, dishes, cleaning out cabinets, taking out trash and more!  If we looked at her crossed eyed or make one negative comment, well she would give us more things to do~like we didn’t have any friends right?

How about always having to know everywhere we were and who are friends were, where they lived, how far would we be going up the street or down the street….and sheesh, if we said we were going to be home “later” it had to be a “time” and if we weren’t home by then, my dad would be out looking for us.  Again, like we had nothing better to worry about than time?

How about those famous phrases too ~ if your friends were going to jump off a bridge would you do that too? I don’t care what your friends are doing, you’re not doing that.  I don’t care if your friends are outside playing right now, you have a table to set, some homework and clothes to fold.

So I thought now would be a good time to share these words of wisdom as the growing years are tough for kids and for Mom’s~I know I was a real pain to my mother and now I can say I appeciate her for just how “mean” she was.  So what does Being Home in Your Heart have to do with all this? Well, it means that I am comforted knowing I am not alone in the things I say and do.  I can laugh out loud when I say some of these “momisms”.

I tell my kids that HOME is where your learning begins and that it is up to me to follow through with that teaching.  Even when I think what I say is falling on deaf ears, I take heart that they too will remember all these mean mom things and make right choices for themselves.

I also take great comfort in the fact that they will come back with their families and feel “Welcome Home”.