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Motherhood is forever, and other lessons to learn
November 19th, 2009, 3:30 pm · 5 Comments · posted by Cindy McNatt
Even though my pregnant daughter is a nurse and has washed, folded, sorted and sterilized all her baby gear and packed her hospital bag for a delivery in late December or early January, and she is very smart and reads incessantly, there are some things she doesn’t know yet.
About the love:
She doesn’t know to what depth she will fall in love with baby Bo. Despite stocking me up with a gaggle of grandma gear, I know and she doesn’t that I won’t be able to pry that baby out of her hands for months and months. That form of fiercely protective love doesn’t happen until you’re a mother.
About the discipline:
She doesn’t know and I do that despite her claims that Bo will be a well-behaved boy, that when he finally bonks her over the head with a toy dump truck, that she’ll think it’s the most adorable thing he ever did. Discipline is difficult and motherhood gives new meaning to the old parental adage “this will hurt me worse than it will hurt you.”
About the devotion:
She doesn’t know that despite preparing dad for some of the nighttime feedings, baby Bo won’t burp without her flying out of bed to check. A mother can hear her own baby miles away no matter how sleep deprived she is.
Motherhood is forever:
She doesn’t know yet that even when your baby is 33 years old, that the fiercely protective love doesn’t stop, you still think every thing they do is cute, and when they cry you continue to hear it from miles away.
More grandmotherly musings from Hot Flash - Cindy McNatt:
From an almost-grandma: Every parent’s nightmare
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Wow. That so does not match any mother in my life or that I’ve ever known.
Which is too bad because that sounds really nice. You have lucky children. I hope they appreciate it.
Me neither. Articles like these make me feel like a bad mom for having my MIL give my baby a bottle when I passed out from exhaustion and for passing my baby off to my hubby because he was a better burper than I was. I definitely did not think it was adorable when my daughter bonked me on the head with the metal cup from her kitchen set.
Motherhood is wonderful and I feel joy for every mom who has the privilege of the experience. But the rosy picture above isn’t the reality for everyone. The depth of love is something that can’t be described, true, and learning discipline - both for yourself and for your child - is not always easy.
Regardless, I hope your daughter enjoys the experience through the sleep deprivation, pain and uncertainty that afflicts so many young moms. Remind her that the first year may seem like the hardest, but really it’s the easiest!!
This is so true, Cindy. Congratulations on being an almost-grandma. I wonder what you will discover that you don’t know yet about your new role? I’m eager to hear as you learn how grandmaness is different from motherhood.
Some studies show that grandma can have a real effect on the survival of the kid! I found this study fascinating: http://www.newsweek.com/id/222472
Cindy, it’s great to see you here at The Mom Blog. And thank you so much for letting us tag along with you on your journey to grandmotherhood. This is going to be fun. Your post today is incredibly beautiful and so true.
p.s. I love the name of your blog. I wish I would have thought of it - being a middle-aged, mom I can totally relate.
It is so true that Motherhood is forever, it is so even truer about the protective love-you always have this kind of love regardless of how old your children are.