Mean Mums

My brother sent me this via email. I really like it. It certainly spells out how my Mum was with me and how I’m trying to be with my children ๐Ÿ™‚

Mean Mums
Someday when my children are old enough to understand the logic that motivates a parent, I will tell them, as my Mean Mum told me: I loved you enough . . . to ask where you were going, with whom, and what time you would be home.

I loved you enough to be silent and let you discover that your new best friend was a creep.

I loved you enough to stand over you for two hours while you cleaned your room, a job that should have taken 15 minutes.

I loved you enough to let you see anger, disappointment, and tears in my eyes. Children must learn that their parents aren’t perfect.

I loved you enough to let you assume the responsibility for your actions even when the penalties were so harsh they almost broke my heart.

But most of all, I loved you enough . . . to say NO when I knew you would hate me for it.

Those were the most difficult battles of all. I’m glad I won them, because in the end you won, too. And someday when your children are old enough to understand the logic that motivates parents, you will tell them.

Was your Mum mean? I know mine was. We had the meanest mother in the whole world! While other kids ate candy for breakfast, we had to have cereal, eggs, and toast.

When others had a Coke and a pie for lunch, we had to eat sandwiches.

And you can guess our mother fixed us a dinner that was different from what other kids had, too.

Mother insisted on knowing where we were at all times. You’d think we were convicts in a prison. She had to know who our friends were, and what we were doing with them. She insisted that if we said we would be gone for an hour, we would be gone for an hour or less.

We were ashamed to admit it, but she had the nerve to break the Child Labour Laws by making us work. We had to wash the dishes, make the beds, learn to cook, vacuum the floor, do laundry, empty the trash and all sorts of cruel jobs. I think she would lie awake at night thinking of more things for us to do.

She always insisted on us telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. By the time we were teenagers, she could read our minds and had eyes in the back of her head. Then, life was really tough!

Because of our mother we missed out on lots of things other kids experienced. None of us have ever been caught shoplifting, vandalising other’s property or ever arrested for any crime. It was all her fault.

Now that we have left home, we are all educated, honest adults. We are doing our best to be mean parents just like mum was.

I think that is what’s wrong with the world today. It just doesn’t have enough mean mums!

3 thoughts on “Mean Mums

  • March 15, 2007 at 1:34 am
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    Thankyou for posting this poem. My Mum had a copy on the wall in our house as I was growing up and now that I am a mum to my 6mth old, i was remembering it and wanting a copy for my first mothers day. Thanks Sarah

    Reply
  • July 18, 2007 at 1:32 pm
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    Thank you so much for posting this, I had a copy of it on my pc but my hard disk died and i lost it, so glad to of found it again.
    Its time i showed it to my son ๐Ÿ™‚

    Thanks again

    Reply
  • July 18, 2007 at 2:39 pm
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    I’m glad the poem’s been helpful. When my daughter calls me a mean Mum I smile and say yes I am.

    Kylie

    Reply

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