Mom School

I have gullible children.  Their gullibility can make parenting really, really fun.  I have an ongoing joke with them.  Any time I do something "Mom-ish" and they asked me how I learned that particular skill, I tell them that I learned it in Mom School.  Mom School is a place that all Moms are required to attend before they have kids to learn how to be a mom.  When they asked how I knew this or that, I sometimes that it was a class in Mom School.

So, today, I was making dinner on the grill and Danny tried to "help".  Despite my repeated admonitions not to touch the grill, he reached his hand in just as I was taking the meat of of the grill and touch the very front of the stove, not even on the burner.  He burned the tip of his index finger ever so slightly.  I immediately got an ice cube and wrapped it in a cloth to put on the finger, but it didn't work so I said, "Hey, I remember this from mom school.  We learned how to fix burns, hold on a sec."  I ran inside and got a package of frozen raspberries and wrapped in finger in it and then gave him a little ibuprofen for the pain.  I told him that they said that any package of frozen fruit with the ibuprofen should take away the pain in about 20 minutes.  Guess what, it worked!!

After dinner, I had to give the cat his antibiotics.  He fought and struggled, so I wrapped him in a towel with just his head showing so he couldn't squirm and force fed his medicine to him.  Guess where I learned that?  You got it!  Mom school.

At bed time, Danny fell asleep on the couch without doing his business.  Seeing he is no longer in a pull up at night, I felt it important to force him to do his duty before retiring permanently to La-la land.  Joey watched me carry his 70 lb. brother up the stairs, undress him, walk him to the bathroom, quietly talk him into going without waking him up and walk him back to bed.  Joey looked at me with big eyes and asked, "What class taught you how to do that?"  I told him that it was a class called 'Early Childhood Night Time Routine and Preparation' A.K.A,  MOM 101.  He then looked at me and said, "You're fooling again, right?  They didn't really make you go to mom school."  I just smiled at him.  I know I shouldn't lie to my child, but I know that he knows that this is just a little joke between the two of us.

How does a woman learn to be a mother?  Where did I learn these "Mom Skills"?  Growing up, I remember my best friend, Pam and I pretended we were moms.  She had her Betsy doll and I used a red-headed doll named Natalie.  We would pretend by the hours that we were moms.  We used benches in Pam's room and would make cribs for our babies.  We would diaper them, swaddle them feed and burp them.  We would sing and read to them and just practice being moms.  I don't really remember how we learned these skills except we observed the grown-ups being moms to their own children. I am so grateful for the beautiful example these women set for me.  My mom, my grandmothers, my aunts, my babysitter (Pam's mom) and several other women along the way taught me so many things that I currently use with my kids.  I am grateful for all that these woman showed me.  Without their love, patience and guidance, I don't know would do.  I probably would have been really, really clueless when it came to being a mom.

Since this is Teacher Appreciation week and Mother's day is fast approaching, I want to say thank you to all of the women in my life that were instructors to me in Mom school.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!