immediate family
Blood makes you related, loyalty makes you family.
A Letter to My Mama
Dear Mama, Mothers Day is approaching and I’ve found myself reflecting on how far our relationship has come. I started thinking about how grateful I am to finally feel able to celebrate you from a place of pure appreciation for all the things big and small you’ve done for me in the past two years and appreciation for the large role you now play in my every day to day life. I used to be jealous of my girlfriends who were close with their moms and chatted daily on the phone with them. I regret the time that I’ve wasted being mad or distant from you. We’ve had our highs and lows and in those lows, I would often ignore the urge to reach out to you and for that, I’m so very sorry. I’m learning now more than ever that becoming a parent is the hardest job in the world! There’s no instruction manual and you just have to try your hardest while it’s inevitable that you mess up along the way! We all just have to pray it all works out and our kids turn out okay. I’m sorry for ever putting you through hell as a teenager, disrespecting you and getting brave with my rebellion or disrespect. I’m sorry for not listening to you when you warned me I was making dumb choices just like you had made and regret yourself and choosing to make them anyways. I now have my own regrets that shadow yours that wouldn’t exist had I truly listened to you and heard you. I can’t imagine how frustrating for you that must have been. I’ve learned to turn these regrets into lessons, but sometimes it takes messing up and making mistakes a good six or more times for the lesson to really sink in. Im sorry you had to watch me go through those things while I recreated your own past and pain . I’m sure that couldn’t have been easy on you and now that I’m a mother, my heart aches for your mama heart. I wish we would have talked through those things more often. I’m sorry for any time I’ve ever hurt your feelings coming from a place of judgement and ignorance having never been a mother myself, yet. I’m sorry for the resentment I held towards you for years instead of working on my own healing and healing our relationship. More important than my apology, is my gratitude for showing me that people truly can change if they want to bad enough. Thank you for making me feel like I’m worth that effort. Thank you for trying harder to be more present in my life. Thank you for helping me so much with my babies. Thank you for doing all the little things you do for me what feels like pretty often these past few months, not one moment has gone unnoticed or unappreciated. Thank you for being the mom I’ve always wanted and needed. I’m so glad I get to talk to you every day now. I’m thankful you are always there for me to fill in and talk to about the serious stuff and the mundane things. It’s all equally important to me. I’m sorry if I have done a poor job of expressing how much you mean to me until now, but I thought it was long overdue. I would be lost without you! I’m so proud of the woman you have become. I have seen you grow emotionally and internally and now spiritually! Getting baptized with you on Easter Sunday was one of the best days of my life so far! I am so thankful to have such a special moment with you to cherish for the rest of my days. You have a loving and giving heart and you’ve put in the work to become more patient and present for those you love over the years and I see it and I’m grateful for it! You inspire me to continue to strive to become a better woman, mother, and daughter myself! I love you so much. Happy Mothers Day!
By Brittany Dalton4 years ago in Families
A Letter to mom
I was up early, making sure that I saw you before you went to work,before I went to school. I loved being with you in the morning time . It was so quiet and peaceful. Just us. I remebered you always had something pretty on,wether it was a dress and tennis shoes or jeans and a new flowy shirt. (As i'm writing this I'm actually realizing how much I get my fashion from you.) I also remember the smell of your perfume and how you'd sometimes spray just a tiny bit on my wrist, so that I could smell good like you. I even remeber the time, you didnt wake me up because you wanted me to get some extra sleep and when I woke up and realized that you had already left, I went nuts. I was crying, couldnt find my clothes, giving my big brother a hard time so we ended up missing the bus. My dad had to take us to school and I remember him being so confused as to why I was so upset. Running through my head was thoughts of never seeing my mom again. What if you got in a car wreck? What if you wouldnt be able to come home after work? Once I did see you after school I was so happy and you promised me you would never do it again, and you didnt. But, this particular morning was different. As you got the rest of your things like your lunch bag, your purse, and paper work together and began to finish the rest of your coffee you asked me out of the Blue, "What would you do if your little sister got hurt really bad, or if you weren't able to see her again?" My little eleven year old mild was caught off guard a bit. I wasn't sure, I hadn't thought about it before. I felt really sad. She observed me and asked once more, "What would you do?" I folded my arms and looked down mumbling the words, "I dont know." My little sister was so annoying to me, she always followed and always wanted to play with me. Whenever our cousins would come over, I would make sure that she had enough toys to herself, so that she wouldn't play with us and annoy us. I felt like she always got what she wanted,whenever she wanted, however she wanted it; it wasnt fair. She always got me in trouble when she would pass a lick and when I returned the favor, would cry to our parents, and I would get in trouble. I looked back up at you to read your expression.You leaned on the counter and said, "How would it make you feel?" "Sad." I replied "Blake, you only get one sister and she loves you very much, but you are so mean to her. You dont let her play with you and you always say "no" when she wants you to play with her. You are a big sister and you are not being a good one." My eyes watered a bit. I hadn't realized that she loved me, and wanted to play with me,or even cared about me. I only saw her as a annoying little sister. I looked back down at the White kitchen floor. You looked at me and said, " Think about what I just said Blake, long and hard." You hugged me as usual and told me to have a good day at school. I got ready and would take a look at my little sister as she got ready and felt so guilty. From that day on I made it my business to be a better big sister. I played with her more, to the point that I would ask her to play with her, shed get so excited. We ended making dance recitals ,plays, and movies on your ipad with our dolls. Momma that day you didnt just help me become a better big sister. But a better daughter, little sister, neice, cousin, woman, and person. You made me think twice before I speak and to be kind. To smile at strangers and to say hello to the "odd one out." To work hard, but never forget to stop and smell the roses, to always put a little perfume on and a cute outfit. Thank you, Momma.
By Blake Lockhart4 years ago in Families
I Thought You Should Know
People act as if being happy is as simple as saying -- hey, I'm happy -- and BOOM there goes the serotonin. It's full of fickle emotions, consciousness of the fact you are you, and that you could die at any moment. Life, for anyone, is terrifying. We are forced to figure out how to live and be satisfied within it. While our joy is weighed in personal choices and uncertain variables. The older I get; the more I get life. The more I get you. The more I am you.
By Kaylen Misako4 years ago in Families
So Much More!
Motherhood entails so much more than I imagined. We cherish all the precious moments of our child’s life. We watch and help them through their days and continue to nurture throughout their milestones. Motherhood is full of experiences. It requires making changes, determination, patience, compassion and a lifetime of support.
By LaBree Johnson4 years ago in Families
Beauty Queen
“Darn it! I can’t believe I killed another one.” Mom laughed. “Don’t worry. I’ll try and revive it for you.” I have no idea how she managed it, but she actually resurrected the plant. Its new life didn’t last too long but the plant lived for a few months before it decided it was better off without me.
By Margaret Brennan4 years ago in Families
The Dream Wedding
It was a month before Jane's dream wedding. She had envisioned it since she was six after reading one of her mother's wedding magazines. She imagined having a destination wedding in the country where she would have it in her family vacation home, with the perfect gown, a sixteen layer cake with vanilla frosting and handwritten vows. She had shared these ideas with her mother, Frances, who helped her with what was needed and putting money aside. Frances believed that her own first wedding to Jane's father, Ralph, was a disaster. In the morning hours before the wedding, he had finished two beer bottles. Frances could smell the beer under his breath as they were exchanging vows. Then at the reception, he drank three glasses of wine with the steak dinner. To Frances' embarrassment and horror, Ralph interrupted the toast spoken by Rose, Frances' long time friend and bridesmaid and Jane's godmother. He then went into a drunken slurred speech with what Frances believed that may have been insults towards her father, who knew they were directed at him. After walking off, he accidentally bumped into the waiter, knocking him over and spilling two plates of steaks onto Frances' mother. Frances was not happy about the incident and did not speak to him during the beginning of their honeymoon. By the end of the honeymoon, they went back home and Ralph apologized to her parents for the reception fiasco wanted to fix things between all of them. However nearly half a year after Jane was born, Frances and Ralph were still living with her parents and the tension between him and them had gotten worse. It was mostly that Jane was thrown into the mix, as Ralph was sleeping off a couple of beer cans on the couch and Jane was crying from upstairs. Frances came home from shopping and quickly ran upstairs to tend to Jane. She was not happy with Ralph and nearly tripped over a beer can. She thought it was time to take Jane and find a new place to live until she and Ralph patched up things between them. A couple of years later, their second daughter Jessica was born and Frances had secured a job as a elementary school teacher while Ralph went to work as a sportswriter. But he would sometimes come home drunk and asleep on the couch after away games. This was frustrating for Frances, especially after one night when they had a argument and he left after throwing a bottle against the wall. The whole event had Jane thinking different about love and marriage and was concerned about how things were going to be for her and Jessica. By the time she entered ninth grade, Jane fell in love with Daniel who was in her first period algebra class. They called each other almost every weekend and Frances received the bill. Eventually she got over the bill upon Jane telling her about Daniel and invited him to dinner to meet him for the first time. It was the summer after their freshman year of college when Daniel proposed to her and she accepted. By the time Jane, Jessica, Frances, Daniel, Rose and several groomsmen and bridesmaids went to the vacation house, they were surprised to see who would be coming. There was a knock on the door and Daniel thought it was his family as they took a flight from New York. Instead it was Ralph who was ready to walk Jane down the aisle. Jane hold nothing against him after those years but Frances was very upset and concerned. The whole family were able to look past those events and Ralph got to know Daniel better. The next day was the wedding and Ralph walked her down the aisle and she and Daniel exchange vows. Jane finally had the wedding of her dreams.
By Forest Green4 years ago in Families
Childhood Summer Vacations
When I was almost eleven years old, we moved from Milwaukee, Wisconsin where I was born to Kansas City, Missouri. We moved because my father had to have hip surgery, and this caused him not to be able to work his decent paying construction job. His family was in Kansas City, Missouri and my mom’s relatives were about 130 miles away in Junction City, Kansas and about another 100 or so miles away in Wichita, Kansas. This meant we would be close to family. My father was concerned about us being in Wisconsin, with him not at his best without any family near us. He had to go on disability, and this caused him a lot of mental anguish for a while. My father was a proud man and not working his regular job to provide for us bothered him.
By Hadayai Majeed aka Dora Spencer4 years ago in Families
My Mother was a Tea Smuggler
In 1941, when Hitler invaded Russia, my mother, Clara, was in college in Kyiv studying Liberal Arts. She was nineteen. She had ambitions to be a lawyer, and she had been fortunate enough to be able to go to school in Kyiv, about 100 miles from her home in Korosten, a small rural town in Ukraine close to Chernobyl, where her mother, father, two brothers, and younger sister lived.
By Marilyn Davenport4 years ago in Families
Word of the Day: 海辺
My dad and I don't have the best relationship. I barely know the man past a few hours watching him surf on the beaches of California. I guess he was living his dream somehow. I was shocked when I heard that my grandma used to leave him all by himself as a child at the beach with a little sack-lunch; Just left him, all by himself. I wonder if he was scared or if he was just a naturally confident kid? He used to ride horses bareback and run a muck on his street so, I would like to think of him as not knowing fear during that time.
By Kayla McIntosh4 years ago in Families
Three Stories About My Mother
As a parent, have you ever had trouble getting your offspring out of bed, dressed, fed and off to school, in the morning? If you have, it may be a one-off incident or a regular event. In any case, you will know how difficult and time-consuming (I might even say, time-wasting) experience it can be. That’s without mentioning the psychological questioning you undergo; “am I a bad parent?”, “Could I do things better?”, “Why is this happening to me?”.
By Doug Woods4 years ago in Families
