Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Mothers..are they crazy or what?

Mothers! You can't live with them, you can't live without them. They are a constant reminder of how puny and powerless we are despite our towering height, our prestigious job, our powerful position, or our important mission in life. They have this uncanny ability to make us feel childish and defensive. And why? Simply because they have the high privilege of being our mothers.

And how can we act powerful and mature? They have seen body parts that we prefer to keep under wraps. They have seen our worst side--the tantrums, bedwetting, drooling saliva, dripping nose, and toilet habits. We can never pretend to be anything else but the children they had raised.

Yes, they have us given us such a nightmare! They would force us to perform in front of any visitor who happened to be in the living room. Dance, Junior, dance. Sing, Maria, sing. It made us cringe, didn't it? Of course, there would be comments about how we fared in school (either they were disappointed or exhilarated) as we performed the minutes away. Mothers!

Then, there would be endless naggings to do the dishes, fix the bedroom, finish the assignments, or else a whack on the bottom would be the prize. As we grew older, the whack became curfews and groundings, but the chores remained the same and even got heavier. Mothers!

When it came to hairstyles and dress fashion, as long as we let our mothers had a say, expect the boys to look like our national hero, Jose Rizal or the girls to look like either a page boy or a Christmas tree with all the trinkets. The clothes had to follow whatever was the dress code our mothers preferred. So it could range from looking like a clown to looking like a miniature Britney Spears or Barbie dolls or whatever was the whim of the day. Mothers!

Aside from these, they would demand that we take a certain course, whether we liked it or not. "MOTHER KNOWS BEST" was the motto. Therefore, a literature fanatic would learn how to handle an injection; a music aficionado would face the world of computers; and an art freak would deal with balance sheets. Sometimes this coercion paid off, sometimes....well, it was their money anyway. Mothers!

Yes, they seem crazy to us, but for all of its worth, our mothers did try to raise us the way they saw fit. It may not be the best method, but they have the right to be wrong, haven't they? They can be controlling, demanding, and unreasonable, but they can also be self-sacrificing, perservering, and resilient.

We must not forget that carrying us to term for 10 months was no small feat. All that extra weight to carry, the discomfort of a bulging belly, the morning sickness, the diarrhea, the frequent urination, the cravings, and the innumerahle visits to the gynecologist would wear down any healthy man (No wonder this stress was given to a woman!). Not our mothers!

And the actual process of giving birth by natural means or C-section was not something to trifle with. And this was not over yet. Breastfeeding, numerous diaper change and late nights would soon follow.

Mothers! They drive us crazy but we did it to them first by being in their womb all those months. We drove them crazy with our tantrums and teenage rebellion. All we can do now is to acknowledge the fact that motherhood is such a difficult task from the very beginning. We owe our life to them, though we need not feel guilty if we have to cut the umbilical cord one day.

Let them be motherly and crazy at the same time, for when our turn comes to become parents ourselves, we will drive our own kids crazy and then we will know how our own mothers must have felt when they were raising us. Of course, I am talking of the normally "crazy" mothers. The truly clinically crazy mothers will be another topic!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The truly clinically crazy mothers? Now, that's interesting! I wonder if you will base it from experience. :-)

Unknown said...

Just stumbled upon your blog. Very interesting reading. You must post more often!

brendanturner10@gmail.com
Toronto, Canada

Opinionated Pinay said...

Well, Brendan, thank you for the encouragement. Unfortunately, I am so swamped with work right now and blogging has to take a back seat. Actually, blogging is now inside the car trunk.

Maybe I can do this again in the future....either during retirement or being between jobs.