From the birds and the bees, to family trees.: I open my mouth and a mom jumps out

Tuesday 19 November 2013

I open my mouth and a mom jumps out

I open my mouth and a mom jumps out
19 November 2013

Every so often, I open my mouth, and much to my horror a mom jumps out.

I swear! It’s most bizarre. I’m not quite sure where she comes from.

And at times, I’m tempted to swivel my head around, to see exactly who really spoke.

Only to find, to my surprise, that I’m the only adult. Which more than likely, means it was me. Unless there’s a really sneaky, invisible, ventriloquist, who hangs around me quite a lot. And an opinionated mom-one at that.

I’m not quite sure precisely when it happened. And if it was all just overnight? Perhaps it crept up on me, and thus I barely noticed. Sort of bit by bit, it lulled me into a false sense of security, that I’m still young, unencumbered, cool and hip.

Which, according to my kids, I’m SO not!

Personally, I’m thinking maybe it happened gradually. And that as my kids have gotten older, so my mom-talk has too. It’s had to adapt and grow with them. No longer do I make cutesie baby talk, and praise them for using their own spoon to feed themselves.

The goal posts have most definitely shifted. And both the kids and I, have had to move with the changing times.

Still, whereas the meta-mom-phosis for most of us mothers, is gradual, and possibly starts at the onset of pregnancy. Maybe even earlier, with the planning of a pregnancy phase. For some it really happens overnight. Sometimes even during the day. I will never forget, my twenty one year old sister, and her brand new, if slightly older boyfriend, and his kids, joining us for a family weekend away. Up to that age, Katrine, had been my much loved younger sister. The baby of the family. And perhaps in my eyes, she was still the little four year old, who tagged behind eleven year old me, all of the time. Or rather, the annoying eleven year old, who tagged behind the “cool” eighteen year old me.

Also up to this stage, Luke, at age two, had been the only grandchild in the family. And I was the first of the next generation of moms. And was very hard at work playing proud-Mommy-good-Mommy all of the time. We were all just hanging out together, relaxing and having some fun, when the next minute my twenty one year old sister opened her mouth, and I swear a mom popped out! She said, “Alex, my sweetie, it’s getting a bit cold. I think you should put a sweater on.”.

I do believe, I incurred a nasty bout of whiplash. I could not have been more surprised than if my sister had sprouted a set of horns and a trunk. Because just like that, she not only became a mom, she became an adult. And I have never forgotten that. At the same age, I was not in the child zone at all, and I was amazed by her maturity. And still it did not stop there. For the remainder of the weekend, she cut up food into bite sized chunks, whisked kids through the bath and helped put them to bed. Rather eye opening, I tell you.

A few years later, those lucky kidlets, became her bonus children. And how funny it is for me, to get teenage parenting advice from my baby sister, who is now currently busy rearing her third teen. And all I can say, is RESPECT! I’ve just got the one, and I’m barely coping. And somehow she’s made it all look rather easy. She’s got a great relationship with the kids, and they all absolutely adore her. Furthermore, they genuinely like her. A very hard thing to achieve with a teenager. As general dislike of adults, is usually the norm.

And she’s not a pushover. She’s strict. They do chores. She makes them do homework, and study and help with their baby sister. Still, they gravitate towards her. It’s truly amazing.

And so, perhaps I should take a page from her book.

And get me some bonus children…

Occasionally, they even like you better than your own.

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