Friday, April 16, 2010

For All The SAHMs

Have you all been watching "Parenthood"?

I know, I know. None of us needs another show to clog up the DVR but trust me. This is a good one.

I think the best part is that it's something Brian and I can watch together. We like it equally for it's comedic parts, it's sentimental parts, it's serious parts and, c'mon now, you can't have a great television show without some over dramatic parts.

This week there was a storyline involving a stay-at-home mom and a teenage daughter. The daughter chose to spend her career day with her high-powered attorney aunt who worked in the big city, wore expensive suits and ate lunch at the hottest restaurants.

The daughter was extremely giddy to get a glimpse into this exciting lifestyle.

And the mom was a little crushed. Having left behind her own professional career so long ago she felt unimportant and insignificant in her daughter's eyes.

Growing up I remember being that girl. Asking my dad, instead of my mom, to help me with all my tough math homework. Idolizing my professional working aunt. Dreaming of attending a university in the big city.

What the heck did my mom know about those kinds of things? In my eyes she knew how to make my bed sheets smell like springtime. She could make a mean goulash dish. She could clean a skinned knee without making it sting. And she knew how to pick out the best books to read just before bed. But outside the four walls of our house I wasn't sure what else she could offer.

But that was little ol' naive me so long ago.

I did attend that university in the big city. And I did become that super-important, all-knowing professional working girl; for a short time.

But now I'm here. Right where my mom was so long ago.

I don't know if my mom ever felt hurt by my adolescent feelings. Moms are pretty good at hiding that kind of stuff.

Maybe, when she felt disregarded, she just turned her head and smiled.

Maybe she remembered when she felt that same way about her mom.

Maybe she knew that someday I would be doing the same super-important job as her. You know, the washing of the sheets, and the feeding of the mouths, and the reading of the books and all that stuff.

Maybe she knew that someday, someday, I would realize that everything I ever really needed to know, I learned from her.

6 comments:

  1. Look at me, in tears.

    This was a beautiful post. So well-written and so perfectly true.

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  2. This is a beautiful post, Jenny...and so full of truth. I remember thinking the same thing as a teen - admiring the business suits, the money, the heels. I was mostly oblivious to the fact that motherhood was so fulfilling and so important...and soooo much harder than sitting in board meetings. ;)

    Thanks for honoring us all.

    stephanie@metropolitanmama.net

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  3. I love the show Parethood too, and loved your post about it. My oldest daugther is a pre-teen now and she thinks I know nothing at all. My Mom was a SAHM too and now I am. It's hard but so worth it! I know she'll know that someday... Thanks for your touching post.

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  4. Immaturity is a hilarious thing - I'm so embarrassed by many of those thoughts I had as a young person. Now, I try to make up for it by thanking my mom like heck for everything she did to make me the person I am today. Great post, so, so true.

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  5. I love this show. I watch it (dvr'd, of course) faithfully. And I remember this episode, and I remember how crushed I was for that mom, and that I am probably going to feel the same, exact way someday. It's the natural order of things, I guess. But you know what? They'll come back. They always do. And even if they don't, there will always be the most wonderful memories for them that WE created, in this here house. The warm, wonderful memories that no high-powered job is going to create, not ever.

    But still, it stings to be disregarded, doesn't it?

    ReplyDelete

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