Being a mom, one of my favorite holidays is (you guessed it!)\u00a0 Mother\u2019s Day!\u00a0 I love my three kids dearly \u2013 especially now that they are all grown, have their own places, their own incomes, and their own lives.\u00a0 I don\u2019t care if they remember my birthday or not.\u00a0 I don\u2019t need to be reminded that I am aging rapidly?\u00a0 (I\u2019m now so old I lie about my kid\u2019s ages!)\u00a0 However, come Mother\u2019s Day \u2013 I want my due:\u00a0 the corny \u201cI love MOM\u201d mug, a dinner out, movie night, \u201cMy Mom is the best\u201d magnet, flowers, candy, money, or anything else they want to give me.\u00a0 After all, much pain is associated with having children \u2013 and I\u2019m not just talking about childbirth.<\/p>\n
Famous mothers abound.\u00a0 There\u2019s Rose Kennedy, Joan Crawford (Mommy Dearest), Clair Huxtable, \u201cMa\u201d Barker, Olivia Walton, Mother Jones, Mother Teresa and so on.\u00a0 But for my money there was no one who better personified real motherhood than Erma Bombeck.\u00a0 The death of this humorist left a void still unfilled.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not sure how her old columns and books, especially Motherhood the Second Oldest Profession<\/em>, would impact today\u2019s moms, but I will \u00a0always remember Erma fondly as the one mother who gave me permission to be the imperfect, real me \u2013 without guilt, shame, or regret \u2013 and laugh about it in the process! \u00a0<\/p>\n You have to realize it was a different era.\u00a0 Moms who worked outside the home were the minority.\u00a0 Women were expected to cook three meals a day, keep a sparkling clean house, raise impeccable children, car pool, mow the lawn, do the laundry and actually iron clothes, plus greet your husband with a kiss and a martini when he walked in the door at night. \u00a0Scandalous???? Yes, but it is what it is and that\u2019s the way it was.<\/p>\n Erma had the audacity to ask why men were incapable of changing the toilet paper roll and state that housework, if done right, could kill you.\u00a0 After all, no one ever died from sleeping in an unmade bed. Her theory was that if the item didn\u2019t multiply, smell, catch on fire, or block the refrigerator door, let it be.\u00a0 No one cares?\u00a0 Why should I?\u00a0 And there was the problem, I think.\u00a0 Women were doing all of this stuff and no one seemed to care or appreciate it \u2013 least of all the husband and kids.<\/p>\n Here are some of my favorite Bombeck quotes on motherhood:<\/p>\n In the midst of her humor she would insert a gem to keep for life:<\/p>\n She also said, \u201cChildren make your life important.\u201d\u00a0 I think of that one when Mother\u2019s Day rolls around.\u00a0 I don\u2019t really feel all that important, but I can tell you this \u2013 my children have made life worth living.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Being a mom, one of my favorite holidays is (you guessed it!)\u00a0 Mother\u2019s Day!\u00a0 I love my three kids dearly \u2013 especially now that they are all grown, have their own places, their own incomes, and their own lives.\u00a0 I … Continue reading \n
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