We’re not perfect – nor will we ever be. We will screw you up – usually by doing the exact opposite of what our mothers did to screw us up. We will repeat ourselves long past eyes rolling, hands on hips, defiant voices and the “oh mom, you won’t understand”. But we do understand. Believe it or not, we had mean friends, unrequited love, failed tests, failed relationships, bad decisions and bad jobs.
We wiped every one of your snotty noses, survived on three hours of sleep, knew the quickest route to the hospital at 3:00am, calmly cleaned the vomit from our jeans while finding the nearest bucket, smiled as you danced bare bum and clapped as you sang Silent Night off-key for the 100th time – of course recording it all. We read Goodnight Moon and Cat in the Hat so many time we could recite it without breath. Those funny habits you have of singing the alphabet while brushing your teeth, cutting toast in triangles, eating M&M’S by colour and folding t-shirts the GAP way, that’s us.
When you become a mom – forever changing your quiet and perfectly controlled life – just remember that we were there first. So go ahead, Gina Ford it, dummy it, drink, vent, cry, keep a journal, take up knitting, find friends you never thought you would, breast feed in public or until age five, organic everything, gluten nothing, wood toys, cloth nappies, ban the word ‘no’, ban tv….just survive.
And when your baby starts sleeping through the night, which he will, and starts peeing on a toilet instead of your lap, when playdates turn into school runs and tantrums turn into bullying, when a crush turns into devastation and a proposal turns into forever, and when a passion becomes a profession, thank your mom. She helped you get there. And those little words of wisdom that are met with "your" child’s eyes rolling, hands on hips, defiant voice and “oh mom, you won’t understand” came from us first. See, we’re more alike than you think.