Someday when my children are old enough to understand the logic that motivates a mother, I will tell them:
* I loved you enough to bug you about where you were going, with whom, and what time you would get home.
* I loved you enough to insist you buy a bike with your money that we could afford and you couldn’t.
* I loved you enough to be silent and let you discover your hand-picked friend was a creep.
* I loved you enough to make you return a Milky Way with a bite out of it to a drug store and confess, “I stole this.”
* I loved you enough to stand over you for two hours while you cleaned your bedroom, a job that would have taken me fifteen minutes.
* I loved you enough to say, “Yes, you can go to Disney World on mother’s day.”
* I loved you enough to let you see anger, disappointment, disgust, and tears in my eyes.
* I loved you enough not to make excuses for your lack of respect or your bad manners.
* I loved you enough to admit I was wrong and ask your forgiveness.
* I loved you enough to ignore “what every other mother” did or said.
* I loved you enough to let you stumble, fall, hurt and fail.
* I loved you enough to let you assume the responsibility for your own actions, at six, ten, or sixteen.
* I loved you enough to figure you would lie about the party being chaperoned, but forgive you for it…after discovering I was right.
* I loved you enough to shove you off my lap, let go of your hand, be mute to your pleas…so that you had to stand alone.
* I loved you enough to accept you for who you are, not what I wanted you to be.
* But most of all, I loved you enough to say no when you hated me for it. That was the hardest part of all.
Proud Mama To
