1.) Share something your child taught YOU about parenting.
Today, August 29th, is my Mom's 85th Birthday. It has been a very hard year for her and for all of us. She had several falls and broke her hip. She will never walk again. Some days are better than others but she has alzheimers and sometimes doesn't know who I am. She is on hospice and we do not know how much time we have left to be with her. You may be asking "What does this have to do with the prompt?" Well, what I now know, thanks to my children, is to completely and whole heartedly THANK my Mom for what she did for us. I now know how hard it is to be a Mother and how much you give of yourself for your children. I understand all that my Mother would say to us because I am now living her life, although I just have two children and my Mom raised four of us. I now know to THANK my Mom for the countless loads of laundry she did, the millions of meals lovingly made, and taking us to our multitude of activities... sports, scouting, dance, recitals, school. I think it takes our own children to finally have the appreciation and understanding of what our parents experienced.. both the good and the bad. I also know that childhood goes by in a blink of an eye and suddenly you are all grown up raising kids of your own. I hope that my children will have the wonderful, carefree childhood that my Mom provided us. Someday, their children, my grandkids, will teach them what I now know.
Today, August 29th, is my Mom's 85th Birthday. It has been a very hard year for her and for all of us. She had several falls and broke her hip. She will never walk again. Some days are better than others but she has alzheimers and sometimes doesn't know who I am. She is on hospice and we do not know how much time we have left to be with her. You may be asking "What does this have to do with the prompt?" Well, what I now know, thanks to my children, is to completely and whole heartedly THANK my Mom for what she did for us. I now know how hard it is to be a Mother and how much you give of yourself for your children. I understand all that my Mother would say to us because I am now living her life, although I just have two children and my Mom raised four of us. I now know to THANK my Mom for the countless loads of laundry she did, the millions of meals lovingly made, and taking us to our multitude of activities... sports, scouting, dance, recitals, school. I think it takes our own children to finally have the appreciation and understanding of what our parents experienced.. both the good and the bad. I also know that childhood goes by in a blink of an eye and suddenly you are all grown up raising kids of your own. I hope that my children will have the wonderful, carefree childhood that my Mom provided us. Someday, their children, my grandkids, will teach them what I now know.
I'm so very sorry to hear about your mother and her state. But you've written a great post with wonderful words.
ReplyDeleteI can only hope that everyone's children grow up to be appreciative of what their parents have done.
This is all very familiar to me as well. Take good care of yourself. It can be very draining to be the "sandwich generation". You are absolutely right that when what we have been given by our own parents is good to start with we are better able to pass on good to our kids.
ReplyDeletei'm sorry to hear about your mom but that's a lovely tribute to her. i'm not a mom yet but i've began to understand why my parents did certain things they way they did as i grow older.
ReplyDeletethanks for visiting.
wonderfully said! :) Jen
ReplyDelete