Oprah has long said moms have the toughest — and most important — job.
I agree. And try raising three heard-headed kids, work a full-time job, and prepare a home-cooked meal every night complete with dessert.
That’s my mother, Super Mom, who has literally lifted the bar on motherhood so high, none of us have kids of our own. Likely because there’s no way we can be the kind of mom she’s been to us. It’s just not genetically possible!
I often wonder what it takes to be a good mom. Compassion, level-headedness, patience, organizational skills, commitment, and an uncanny ability to convince their kids that a) there is a Santa and b) jumping off the roof with an umbrella isn’t a good idea.
My mom possesses all these qualities and more. She’s a master at multitasking, she’s never late, she’s a phenomenal cook and baker, she remembers everything, and she can laugh — often heartily — at herself. These are qualities I’ve come to appreciate in the people around me. I figure if they’re anything like my mom, they’re worth being around.
To say my mom and I are close would be a gross understatement. We’re not BFFs, the kind of strange relationship often depicted on reality TV. No, we’re definitely mother-daughter, with me often calling her for advice and recipes and she checking in to see if I’m still alive. We watch Korean dramas together and talk incessantly about food. (This is where I get that from!) But despite our often casual relationship, she’s still my mother, someone I respect and listen to and run to for hugs, mostly virtual.
On this Mother’s Day — since I know she reads (and picks out the errors) in my blog — I just wanted to tell her thanks. Thanks for listening to me whine about boyfriends and dead-end jobs, thanks for sharing all your secret recipes and cooking tips, thanks for always laughing at my jokes, thanks for showing me it’s OK to just be me.
Mom, you da bestest. 🙂
Anyone want to give a shout-out to their moms, too? I’d love to read it!
7 Comments
NIce words about your mom Cat. My mom was a stay at home mom through most of our childhood (6 kids). She ruled with an iron fist but she was always there for us when we needed some TLC. She lives in AZ now with one of my sisters and still drives (81years old). Happy mother’s day to all the moms out there!
My mom was a stay at home mom. Even had a maid for crying out loud. Easily the oddest person I know but she will always be mom.
Does you mom surf???
CAT: My mom has passed, but not a day goes by when I think of her influence in my life. I truly miss her and thank her for being a Mom and Grandma to my kids.
Hello Cat!
You have a great mom and a great relationship with her.
Happy Mothers Day Mrs. Toth! you raised a great daughter!
Hey Cat … you said it so perfectly!!! … Moms are da BESTEST!!! …
… my mom is only with me in spirit now … but as time passes … it becomes so evident … how much she has influenced and affected my life … I would not be the person I am today if not for my mom … with a little help from my Dad, of course (can’t forget that it was a tag-team partnership) …
… but while my Dad was more of a behind the scenes, quiet kind of nurturer … my Mom was up front and in your face … she gave hugs and kisses but she was also the enforcer … and punisher, haha! … like your mom, she worked, cooked for us, kept the house in order, kept us in order … she did lots of side jobs … sewed dresses and catered for small parties (yup, out of our small kitchen!!!) … and everyone loved her desserts …
… by today’s standards … maybe I was a mama’s boy … and I’m not ashamed to admit it … haha!!! … we were really close … you got a problem with that!!! …
There was a big moth hovering around the house this weekend. Might’ve been my mom checking on me and my family.
my mother, Billie Faye, i always called her ‘mother’, was a quiet southern Carolina woman, the fourth of six girls. she was a world class beauty. my dad must have had some skills to land her. i think she set in me, at some level, the need to have beautiful women in my life. as a result i too played and married way out of my league.
Billie Faye Toler moved to Washington DC when the war came, she worked at the Pentagon as the secretary for then Col. Dwight D Eisenhower. that’s where she met my dad. she was as polite and reserved and modest a woman as i have ever known. she loved art, novels, music and she couldn’t cook to save her life. i mean, she could not boil water. my dad was a Virginia country boy used to hunting, fishing and what we now call farm to table produce, in a day when kitchen skills could seal or nix a union, i guess he chose beauty over bounty, and put up with cans and a pressure cooker most of his life.
Billie Faye was a gentle mother, never raised her voice at me or my brother. she was calming when i cried. patient when i wasn’t, showed her pride in me when i excelled and did not criticize when i did not. she made me banana sandwiches and put grape jelly in my cottage cheese. my dad, incredulous, said nothing about it.
i am now one year older than she lived to be. we lost her in’ 86 at the age of 64. when she got the word from the doctor “a year, eighteen months at most”, she didn’t lose any of her composure. my dad said, ”pack, we’re going to Europe”, and they did. she saw all the art, and all the history she had loved all her life. and she got to play St Andrews, did pretty well for a duffer on a short leash. but she never did learn to cook.