The Best Mother I Know

This is a hard question for me to answer because I consider most of the mothers I know to be excellent in their roles. As a matter of fact, it seems like I can applaud the efforts of almost every maternal person I know. But after much deliberation, I realized that as a single mother, I spend so much time bemoaning my shortcomings, I never pat myself on the back.

So, today, I would like to honor me.

I am not the modern day equivalent of June Cleaver. I don’t have warm cookies and a tall glass of cold milk waiting on my daughter when she gets home from school. As a matter of fact, until a few weeks ago, I was seldom home before my daughter got out of school. It’s kind of a hard thing to do when you are working full-time outside of the home.

My house, on any given moment, may or may not pass for “clean”. It most certainly never passes a white glove test. I hate, hate, hate dusting. Thank God for paper plates, cups, and plastic silverware. I’m just saying.

Cooking is not my forte’. Whoever decided that it was a good idea to put a cafeteria in the grocery store is a freakin’ genius. Many a meal was saved by the already prepared rotisserie chicken from Publix. And since my mother is the best cook I know, and only lives about ten miles away, it is not unheard of for me to request a To Go box for me and Diva In Training that I swing by and pick up on my way home. Mom happily obliges because she still cooks like she has five kids in the house. And DIT and I want to keep her happy.

What I am good at is putting my daughter’s needs first. That means making sure that she has all that she needs and a smidgen of what she wants. (Let’s face it, kids want A LOT these days).

I am my child’s biggest cheerleader. At a very early age, my child decided that she wanted to be an actress. Theater is her thing. And she is great at it. As a bookworm, geek, egghead, whatever you want to call me, I’ve held a very dim view of acting as a profession. The roles for African American women are still slim to none. But that’s another blog for another day. And then I saw my daughter perform for the first time. I was blown away. It truly is her calling. I would be remiss as her mother if I didn’t encourage her to live out her dreams. Come what may, I don’t want her life to be one of dreams deferred when the right words and attitude from me might have made the difference.

With unconditional love, just like other moms, I worry, fuss, complain, bargain, discipline, threaten, cajole, protect, nurture, and guide my child.

But for me, the one thing I do best as a mom is marvel at the possibilities that lie ahead for DIT. She knows that there are no parameters on what she can achieve. ‘Cause her Mama told her so.