When I was a kid, and read stories, articles, etc, about a mother who put herself in dire peril to save her child, I figured that the mother was crazy. Who in their right mind would push a child out of the way of an oncoming train when she KNEW the train would then kill her? Who in their right mind would dash out into heavy traffic to push a child out of the way of a careening bus when she KNEW that bus was going to hit her instead? Who in their right mind would leap atop a vicious snarling rabid animal and kick a child aside so the animal would devour the mother instead of the child? Who in their right mind would give a child the only remaining life jacket/parachute and choose to go down with the ship/plane and let the child live? Who in their right mind would give a child the only food in the house? Who in their right mind would use the last of the money to buy a child a warm coat? Who in their right mind would cut up her own clothes so a child would have school clothes? Who in their right mind would stay up long past biological clock’s survival abilities to help a child with homework, or listen to his/her problems, or read aloud to/with him/her? And what’s with all these little nightly rituals that MUST be followed? Who in their right mind cares where a teenager is at midnight, or with whom? All these things steal away a mother’s individuality, her right to a life of her own. They are bothersome. Annoying. Who in their right mind would willingly do all these things, and more?

I think we know the answer to those questions, don’t we. All of you would, and so would I.

Have you ever known a mother who was in her right mind?

Neither have I.

I don’t think completely sane people make good mothers. I think you have to be a little bit nuts. Or a lot. And if you weren’t nuts before, you soon will be. If you do it right, that is.

And if you don’t have a well-devloped sense of humor, please go have yourself neutered. If you can’t laugh at things that make most people cry, you shouldn’t have children.

Mothers do their crying later. Lots of it.

Not everyone is cut out to be a mother. Sometimes, we don’t know till it’s too late.

My mother is a perfect mother. She was always there, and she’s still always there. Not in any intrusive way, she’s just, always there.

I think she put her own ‘self’ aside a little too much, but it was the context of the times. She’s making up for it now, red hat and all. I’m glad she’s having such a good time now.

When she had four little kids at home, she didn’t have time for her own good times. Oh, there were ‘occasions,’ but they were usually seasonal and they were very, very rare.

Modern mothers know that the individual good times must be more frequent, lest we all go completely mad. But even so, the children and their needs come first. Nothing is as important as our children. Nothing.

And this is exactly as it should be.

That’s my opinion, and I’m standing by it.