Things Mom Lost Along the Way

When I was a little girl, my pretty young mother used to go to parent-teacher meetings at my elementary school. To the best of my knowledge, Dad never accompanied her. Those were different times and children were primarily the mother’s responsibility. I know those meetings intimidated her: she had to quit school in her mid-teens so she could leave home and start making her way in the world and – although she later acquired her high school diploma by correspondence courses – her lack of a formal education always embarrassed her. I am sure she would have been grateful for my Dad’s company, but men didn’t ‘do’ those sorts of things back in the 60s and 70s.

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Clothing Labels and Parenthood

When my kids were little, I used to have to label all the clothing they wore to daycare.

The Real Reason You Boil Water When a Baby is Being Born

I am NOT good in a crisis.

Good Cop, Bad Cop

“Mom, did you go down those stairs?” my sister demands one day, as she notices some object that Mom could only have found in the basement.

“I was very careful!” my mother protests. “I held the railing the whole way down and I took it one step at a time.”

“What if you had taken a fall, Mom? I suppose you did this after the caregiver left?” My sister is upset and exasperated.

Neighbours

They live next door to one another.

They are both in diapers; the pull-on kind. Their families help them practice using the toilet: sometimes they get there on time; usually they don’t. Neither one makes it through the night without an accident: every morning, the family washer is filled with bedding and clothing that was soiled in the night.