Mom-agination: One Mom Gets Validation

My son starts third grade today. It is thrilling and exciting, yet doesn’t contain the heart-wrenching emotional trauma for me that say, kindergarten held. However, it triggers me thinking about my performance as a Mom as I tend to evaluate every so often. Of course I am my own harshest critic, most Moms are. Did I pack a healthy lunch for him? Is he prepared for the challenges of a new grade? Could I have done more?

The entire day is whittled away obsessing over these questions. As a Mom, I want the best for my family…doesn’t every Mom? When my son gets home and empties his crisp Pirate backpack, a lone paper flutters to the floor. When I bend to retrieve it, I note the title in my son’s loopy handwriting: “Three Things that Make me Happy”.

While he scours the refrigerator for snacks (why didn’t I have an assortment of cut fruits sitting on the table? Put one point on my Mom-Inadequacy Chart) I read his list:

#3. Disney World makes me happy. At least the mega-money it cost is remembered. It was a great family vacation and I am touched it made the list.

#2 School makes me happy. I want to learn to be an author like my Mom. Excellent. So far I’ve managed to help instill a love of learning in him, although I do harbor a secret knowledge that his favorite subjects are recess and lunch.

#1 My family makes me happy. Walla! I’ve done it! I’ve created a warm, loving environment for my son to grow and learn and love. All those years…all the obsessing, all the questioning is finally validated! I am doing a good job as a Mom!

And then my son asks for a Hershey bar. I say no. He pouts. I stand my ground. He claims I am unfair. I remind him no Hershey bars before dinner. He stomps around the kitchen.

“What are you doing?” he asks me as I stick his “List of Things that Make Me Happy” to the refrigerator with a hand-colored magnet he had made in preschool (soooo long ago).

“Just posting this list as proof.”

“Proof of what?” he asks.

I smile, “Proof that you like me.”

“That’s stupid, Mom, because of course I love you.”

I hand him a Hershey bar. I even unwrap it for him. Put another point on the Mom-Inadequacy chart. But it sure is worth it.