Oh My God, I'm Turning into My Mother!

While I was at the gym this morning, it hit me. I'm quickly turning into my mother. Not that it's a bad thing (Love you Mom!) but just something I didn't expect to happen so soon in my life.


For those of you who don't know my mom, she is a character. You can ask Sarah, Jenna, Brandy, Nicole, or Tracie and they can tell you. She's not one of those really cuddly kind of moms who follows after you picking up your stuff and doing everything for you and loving every minute of everything you do. She's realistic. Who likes to follow someone around and do everything for them all the time? And she lets us know when she is not loving what we're doing (which isn't that often, thank goodness). She's brutally honest and you have to appreciate it (or go crying to your room until you realize she's right).


My mom isn't known for her Mother Teresa-like patience. However, she did manage to raise Brandi and me without killing us (and after the taping over her college project with gymnastics fiasco, Brandi was lucky to make it out alive). Before I started teaching, I might have thought my mom had no patience at all. However, I realize that she had loads of patience and I didn't realize how annoying kids can really be. Really, really annoying with all their chatter and stories about events that you really just had to be there to get it and their fights over the most stupid, insignificant things. Not to mention the tears and friendship problems. The fact that she actually likes...correction, loves us is amazing. I can't wait to have my own kids to see what that is like.


When I was younger, I didn't realize what all my mom was balancing in her life. She was a single mom, was going to college, worked full time, still made time to workout, and hauled Brandi and me everywhere. Can you imagine the stress? I do some of those things and feel stressed out. These days, my mom still works full time, takes care of the house, sometimes babysits my niece, and works out like a fiend. When I'm on my second trip to the gym for the day, I'm thinking, "Well, if Mom can do it, I should be able to."

My mom was strict. After watching her with my niece, I'm thinking she may have lost some of her steam, but that could be a grandma thing. I used to think she was mean. My friends may still think she's kind of mean. They'll admit they don't want to tangle with her when she's mad. I now realize that she was just pushing us to do the best we could and be the best people we could be. As a teacher, I've dethroned the previous "Queen of Mean" according to our Nutrition lady. I just reply, "I'm not mean, I just have high expectations." I get it now. You can't be Captain Cuddles with kids all the time. If you try that, they will run all over you and not be better for it. You have to be strict and while they may not appreciate it at the time, they will later (hopefully).

And then there was my mom's policy (she would never admit it herself so I will do it for her) about getting even. Why get mad when you can get even? I will never forget the time the neighbor across the street threw a water balloon at our screen door and some of the water (we're talking a few drops) got on her china cabinet. She sent me over to their house with a jug of water to throw through their screen door. Not our finest moments, but it got the point across...don't mess with Gayle. I don't think she (always) did this out of spite, but she was fiercely protective of us. I remember coming home from summer gym crying because one of the teachers made me feel like I wasn't any good at volleyball (God, I was a crybaby) and my mom told that teacher off like she had never been told off before. In retrospect, it was a little rash. And the teacher really didn't mean to make me feel that way, I was just super-sensitive (i.e. a crybaby most of the time). But my mom defended me like no other. This is a trait I really hope to inherit when I have kids. I do it a little with my students and my dogs, but I can't imagine what it will be like when I have kids of my own.

So now that I'm thinking about it, maybe turning into my mother isn't such a bad thing. Well, as long as I don't get the urge to sky dive when I'm 50, then it won't be such a bad thing.