A Loving Dragoness

My Mom had me when she was nineteen years old. A little too young to be having a child now that I think about it. She had a lot more growing up to do and having a baby didn’t really help. Neither did having two more of them. My younger brothers, Trevor and Andre. Marrying my baby brother’s sperm donor out of some obligation to give us a father-figure.

Since she was young, I still really can’t fault her for this thinking. Wanting to provide a male parental figure for her three children. Even if that hadn’t turned out well for anyone involved except for the bastard she called her husband for twelve years.

But this isn’t about my abuser, this is about my Mom.

Mom wasn’t a perfect parent by any means. She messed up a whole lot in my lifetime and wasn’t the best example. But she is human. Humans make mistakes. And she grew up along with me and my brothers. It was difficult for a young twenty-something to take care of three children essentially alone. Despite being married at that time. My Mom essentially raised the three of us by ourselves and her ex-husband.

She worked hard to take care of me and my brothers. Telling us stories when we were little to put us to sleep. Singing us songs. Sometimes lullabies but often they were just songs that my Grandpa sung to her. Cuddling with us and playing with us when she got the chance. Or wasn’t tired from working so hard. My best memories were playing pretend with Mom or watching T.V with her. Getting to spend one on one time with her and seeing movies. Mom would try to make even between all of us kids by doing that.

Once every few months she’d spend a whole day with each of us kids. We’d all have fun with that.

Getting into my teen years she divorced her ex-husband before I got into high school. It was rough but we all managed somehow. She worked harder than ever before, and we didn’t always get along together. Thanks to me being a bit of a terror growing up. An entitled little brat that wouldn’t begin to see things her way. Despite how hard she tried to teach me how to do certain things for myself, I refused to listen. Though I have managed to learn things by myself nowadays because of not listening beforehand.

I learned how to set up a bank account with her help. How to stand up for myself and people that I love and care about. That if I needed help, she’d be there to give me a hand. Not take over but give me tips on what to do. Which has really helped me in recent months.

She’s one of the reasons I started writing in the first place. Inspiring quite a few of my characters that I’ve written. Some of the Mother characters. Along with some of the villains that I’ve written as well.

Encouraged me to draw as well. Being one of the reasons that I even got into drawing in the first place. From her drawings and the anime that we watched while I was a kid.

There were a lot of things that she did to encourage me as a kid. Helping me sign up for activities as a kid. Taking me to things that she knew that I would absolutely love to do as well. Along with getting me things that I really love. Like horror movies. In fact, she was one of the reasons that I adore horror as a genre. It was also a thing that we’ve somewhat bonded over in the past few years. Like Stephen King books. Though we joke that I’m Stephen King’s number one fan. And we saw the remake of ‘Firestarter’ because of that.

I may be an adult now but my Mom still inspires me. To do better and be better. To stand up for myself and keep my temper. To be a person that she can be proud of.