Mom's

As the mother of an 18 month old, it is impossible to not at least think about Mother's Day. In all honesty, it isn't my favorite holiday-still! Dying flowers and fattening chocolates are not my cup o' tea. However, it does make me pause to think about the type of mother I want to be. This is a serious question-I could be raising the next Matahami Gandhi or Pauley Shore. Guess which one I want to be associated with? After some serious poindering, I am pretty sure I want to be the type of mother that is thought highly of by my son's FRIENDS.
In college, I thought I was pretty much a nerd and this distressed me. Now, big whoop. I get excited over drool free jeans. But when you are 18, 19, 20 years old this can sting. Everyone would talk about going over to friend's homes, and I never went to anyone's home. It seemed like everyone else had a buddy whose home they could go hang, or "chill", and I never got to go anywhere and "chill". The travesty of it all. But with the hindsight that comes with adulthood I see now that the reason I never got invited over "there" is because everyone was coming to my house. My boring old home, where the dog stank, badly, and there was always cold coke in the fridge, was the place to meet.
My mom never called our ideas stupid, although a couple times she asked us if that was really how we wanted things to turn out. She never complained we stayed out to late, went someplace questionable, or hung out with too many members of the opposite sex. She encouraged every single one of my friends to reach for their dreams (it helped that she worked at the college), and even let a few them stay over night when it was too dangerous for them to go home. She demanded in return that we respect her policies and ideas, let her know where we would be so she didn't have to wonder, and to be safe. Above all else, be safe. It's funny-youth is suppose to balk at restrictions but no one ever complained about having to "report" to my mom. Respect isn't hard to give when you are getting it back.
Let's not get confused here-my mom is not perfect. And we recently had a discussion about what I wish she had differently and what she wishes she had done differently. But since neither my sister nor I are running around emulating Paris Hilton or Britney Spears, I would say she did a pretty fair job. And the highest compliment of all- friends who tell me that my mom is their role model as a parent. That makes me sad, because they should be able to use their own families and can't. But it makes me glad that they were able to find a positive role model elsewhere, even if it is my mom.
So when my son reaches "that age", I hope we are the house that has a million teenagers haning about making to much noise, playing their music to loud, and blocking my driveway. Not only will I know where my son is, but it means his friends feel safe at our house, and every kid should have a place they feel safe. Plus, I might be able to annoy any neighbors I don't like!
Everyone enjoy the weekend!