The Best Mother

For all you mothers out there who know the ups and downs, joys and sorrows, and roller coaster ride of motherhood, I salute you. Emily turned thirteen this year and it has involved lots of time spent in her room, eye rolls, and, "whatevers." In addition, it has involved offers to help around the house, thank-yous for taking her to a multitude of parties and events, and "mom I need a hug" comments.

She has also started to show a maturity formerly not shown, so I have been able to leave her at home to work on her school work by herself. I have also been able to get her to do work on the evenings and weekends without complaint. This past weekend was such an occasion. I left her with instruction to work on history and  health, while I attended the SCBWI Ohio North Conference, so that she can forgo a day of school next Friday when we travel to Kentucky to celebrate her Great Aunt Zella's 85th birthday.

The conference was fantastic, I attended wonderfully informative sessions, caught up with friends, and left rejuvenated and ready to go back to the laundry, household chores, and my beautiful, funny, complicated teen.

So when it came time to grab the last book in my reading pile this week, I had to smile. Why? Because it was a book titled The Best Mother. The Best Mother is a tale of a girl who is unhappy with the mother she has and wishes to find a new mother that will give her own way all of the time. She believes she will find this new mother at either the park, the toy store, or the zoo. She questions many mothers only to find in the end that her old mother is really the best mother for her.

And you know what? I know that I am the best mother for Emily. I was not put on this earth to make her happy. I was put on this earth to teach her right from wrong,  to teach her about faith, to help her build her self esteem, to know she is loved, to expand her mind, to think for herself, to keep her safe, to learn how to make good choices, and so much more. And one day when she is a kind, compassionate, intelligent, productive part of society, she too will know I was the best mother.

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week, same crazy time, same crazy channel. Also be sure to drop by Literacy Musings Mondays for more great blogs as well as my personal website Fun With Aileen where you will find more on reading, writing, and my very own chapter and picture books. And finally, you can find me on twitter if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days.