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mara williams
on Jun 18 2013 - 06:00 AM
Hey, manchild, mama says: clean your room, wash the dishes, don't drink and drive.
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Emily Parnell
on Jun 16 2013 - 06:00 AM
Eating fresh, local produce is good for body and soul
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Jim Cosgrove
on Jun 13 2013 - 06:00 AM
I just want to buy some pants. Please, turn down the music.
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Mom and oldest last summer
If I’m going to be honest, really honest, there are a few things my mom did growing up that drove me absolutely nuts. (They did my sister too, but I just better speak for myself here.)
Like when mom would remind me to go clean my room right when I was in the doorway ready to do that very thing. (Man, that’d bug me.) How about telling me for the 52nd time one day to “shut the door we’re not heating the outside.” Or grounding me for getting a B, which she swears to this day I made up but … nope, I’m pretty sure I got grounded.
Though it’s sometimes hard for a kid to appreciate, or even acknowledge, the good things moms do it’s funny how sometimes they hit you once you have your own. And every year around this time of year - the prom time of year - I have one of those moments. (Many more throughout the year, but too many to put here.)
I look at the dresses in all the store fliers or front windows and think back to the late 80s. Not to the prom or even the specific dress - I’m not one of those wax nostalgic types - no, I think back to how my mom would save for months so my sister and I could have the prom dresses we wanted. I mean any one, the price didn’t matter.
Looking back, this was really something considering she was a single mom sometimes working two jobs and we still didn’t have much. My sister and I don’t mind saying we grew up poor, which would be true by definition, but mom would always say poor was a state of mind not a way of life. So, I guess you would say our way of life was a financially tight one. No money for extras, just the essentials.
But for mom, the things that made us feel special were, I guess, the essentials.
So when my sister went to her first prom she got the special shopping trip. Mom took her to the best stores and let her go at it. She’d saved for this. I remember my sister got a silky/satin black strapless dress with pink piping. I didn’t know who was prouder or happier, her or my mom.
And then on prom night, there was mom helping my sister get ready. The makeup, the hair.
The next year I got to go on the shopping trip for my first prom. I remember looking at the tags and only wanting to try on the dresses with the lower prices. I thought money was especially tight that year. But mom wouldn’t have it. She’d be pulling out the fancy ones, making me try them on.
Of course I ended up with one of those fancy ones, a light-blue and white-striped floor length dress, one to this day I wish I still had. Not to wear, just to have. To remember how special I felt.
When you’re a mom you want to give your kids everything. Things your parents didn’t give to you. When you’re a single mom, it’s like you want to do that even more, it’s just a little harder. That’s how it must have been for my mom.
For a few years, when my oldest had just started elementary school, I, too, was a single mom. Let me tell ya, it ain’t easy. Finances weren’t as bad for me and I had one kid not three.
I swear I don’t know how my mom did it. But I do know how she made the best of it. For us.
Make your kids feel special. Take them shopping for prom dresses (your girls, anyway) and tell them they deserve the prettiest, fanciest ones there.
I bet that’ll stick.
Thanks mom.
What great memories. Guess it will be like this when you are out helping your sons buy their first cars? ....... Can you post a pic of your mom or at least a pic of you and one of your great prom dresses?Laura, this made me a little teary-eyed. Great blog. Mine wasn't a prom dress. My mom saved and saved to buy me a purple jumpsuit that I was just crazy for. (I know! But before you make fun, let's see those prom dresses ladies!) I thought she was the coolest mom ever when I opened that on my 15th birthday.
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