From a Teacher to a Parent

My best friend in my life is my mom. She is someone who I know I can trust to have my best interests in mind and who is always on my side. The reason I know I can trust my mom implicitly is because before she was my best friend, she was my mom. Relationships grow and mature and one that is incredibly hard yet so rewarding is the relationship between a parent and their child.

When I was younger, my mom was my mother first. In second grade I was going through a phase where I could not stop lying. If you asked me what color the sky was I would tell you it was pink. At that point I did not need a friend who would ask me the reasoning behind my lying, I needed my mother to come down and hold me to the expectation that lying was not acceptable. It took a while and many hard conversations and consequences, but now I am known for telling the truth, not lying. That is because my mother loved me enough to make the hard decision to hold me to her expectations instead of allowing me to get away with lying.

When I was in middle school I had a hard time with my fluctuating hormones and I took my anger out on everyone. My tongue was a weapon I used ruthlessly against my siblings, even when I immediately regretted it. During that time I did not need a friend to pat my hand and tell me that my emotions were valid. I did not need a friend to tell me to stop and not hold to that expectation. I needed a mother who loved me enough to hold me to better standards and teach me how to take my emotions and control them instead of letting them control me.

Finally, when I became an adult and was in college trying to figure out who I was away from home and my family, I needed a friend to remind me who I wanted to be. That is when my mom became my best friend. I was at an age where I needed to know my mom would trust me to remember the lessons she taught me as a child as I flourished into an adult.

Growing up I always looked up to my mom. She is the epitome of a Christian woman who I want to be when I grow up. If God blessed me with an opportunity to become a mother, she is the example I look to. It can be hard, because even as a teacher there are students I am tempted to treat as a friend, yet that is not what they need from me at this time. They need a teacher who loves them where they are and can hold them to expectations to help them grow.

Today is my mom’s birthday, so I wanted to write this post in appreciation for her. I love you Mumsie!