Mommy vs. Mommy

Everyone needs their mother. When we are little girls, we look up to our mom's and think that our mom is the most beautiful person in the whole world. We become teenagers, and secretly deep down we still feel the same way, but we tell them too often that we hate them or that they are stupid or out of touch. The last one is usually true... Then we become young women trying to make it in the world, and we use our mom as an example of the type of worker and wife we should be as we pave our own way. Then, we become mother's to our own daughters and things start to get tricky.

My mom is a busy body, but she means in it a good way. She likes to extole her opinions about her grandchildren's discipline (usually there should be none), marital fights that are best left alone, and generally, still feels that since she is my mom she has the right to "mother me."

I chose to move back to my hometown in 2004. I actually lived with my parents for 5 months as Chris and I were waiting for our house to sell in Little Rock. Her roof, her rules. Fair enough, but March 2005 we moved to our own house, and a safe distance (less than 3 miles) away. My mom "grandkids-sit" multiple days per week which allows for a "harmless" comment on whatever she thinks of that day. Those harmless comments eat away at my very soul, just like they did when I was 9 years old desperate to please her.

My point is...it is so hard to be a mother. It is even more difficult to be a mother and a daughter. The hardest part is being a mother, daughter and maintain that delicate balance with your own mother as you try your best to do all the things you learned from her.