Tales from the Motherhood's Mother's Day Giveaway

I just discovered this neat blog, Tales from the Motherhood, where the author blogs about all the craziness of mothering 3 little kids BUT she's also a former child actress so she throws in random stories about hanging out with the former heart-throbs we all had crushes on in our youth. Win! So I'm catching up on all her fun stories but meanwhile she is doing a Mother's Day giveaway with Tons Of Cool Stuff so here's my entry.




As a disclaimer: my mom was {mostly} a great mom when I was growing up. My dad was a tyrant so my mom was definitely the good cop. We had a rough time in my teen years and she's got some quirks we're working through in our adult relationship, but for the purposes of this entry, I'm just talking about the good stuff. Here we go:

1. What is your best childhood memory with your mom?

Hmmmm, can't think of an individual memory. She was good with holidays--Christmases were awesome. We did all the things you're supposed to do: bake cookies, assemble gingerbread houses (from scratch! How did she do that?!), see Santa at the mall, etc.

2. Was she consistent with her discipline?

As I said, my dad was a tyrant. He was constantly angry and our punishment usually correlated with his anger level rather than our actual transgression, so his discipline was totally inconsistent. My mom was the one we went crying to afterwards. So I guess her discipline was consistent, i.e. "Wait till your father gets home."

3. Did you ever make your mom cry because you were so unruly or disobedient? (When I pushed my mom too far she would say, “I quit. You can go find a new mom.” That was her form of crying.)

I don't remember my mom ever crying. Now that I'm a mom, she has told me there were days when all 4 of us would say "I hate you" to her--so I know she had her moments, but to me she always seemed to have it together. {Unlike in my parenting, where I am constantly losing it in a variety of ways.}

Also, when we were older (too old to be spanked), discipline was probably more consistent, in that we were always told to "Go to your room!" I actually liked going to my room. ;-)

4. Do you remember any of the special things your mom did for you?

Sadly, I mostly remember the bad stuff. {I own that, it's my glass-is-half-empty problem.} Okay, here's one: For two birthdays in a row (ages 16 and 17), my parents were out of town. On one of them, they sent me flowers. Like real flower delivery, ring the doorbell, flowers. I thought that was very cool!

I remember the trips we took to visit colleges, just me and mom. We had a lot of fun and I look back and am amazed that she could go to these places we'd never been and drive around and navigate us to these schools. Wow! {That's not a skill I possess, I tell ya!}

Alright, there's my entry. Hope I win, it's tons of cool stuff! Now go over to Tales from the Motherhood and enter for yourself!