In answer to many of your comments and questions, I need to tell you that I don’t know all of the facts and I certainly don’t have all of the answers. My belief is that mothers should always be available to offer guidance to their children. Just because children grow up, doesn’t mean that mothers can or should stop mothering them. Giving up is not part of our job description! The amount of respect and love that the children have for their mothers, dictates the success rate of the mother’s lessons.
That being said, the approach needs to be tailored to the individual child. Factoring in the child’s age, character, conscience, needs and degree of open mindedness, a mother’s technique should evolve. We all have experienced the heartbreak, when the time came that we could no longer make everything all better with a kiss and a band aide. While it is excruciatingly painful to endure, mothers sometimes are best able to teach valuable lessons to their children by sitting on the sidelines and watching in silence.
At times, the wait and see attitude is prudent and crucial. If we stepped up to the plate of motherhood, when they were born, we should wear the uniform proudly, even when our team loses. Some of us hit home runs and some of us struck out but we did the best that we knew how to do. We tried our best to smile and shake hands after the game, even when we didn’t feel like being good sports.
The saga of motherhood continues as long as mothers live and breathe. Part of our mothering contract states that we must continue the tutelage of our children forever, or at least until we become senile and change places. We should not ever forget that our children taught us everything that we know about mothering. Hopefully, at some point, they will realize that the ball is now, in their court. Calling a spade a spade with our grown children is similar to the punishments or consequences that we gave to them as youngsters. We know, only too well, that, This will hurt me more than it does you!
