Happy Birthday To My Mean Old Mom

My Mom and her beloved Humphrey

Today is my Mom's birthday.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!  I must confess that I have the most awesome Mom on the planet.  Seriously.  She rocks.  Not only is she a great Mom, but she is an AMAZING Grandma to my boys (I'm not sure which I appreciate more).  Besides being generous with the cash - she is truly generous with her TIME.  Which is the most important.  She will not hesitate to play a board game, dig in up to her elbows in a craft project, or just plain spoil them.  Lemme tell you...my kiddos LOVE their Grandma!
So why do I call her my Mean Old Mom in the heading?  Because when I was growing up, she was mean to me.  Really me.  She didn't let me run wild like the other cool parents did.  I had chores to do.  I had responsibilities to handle.  I had to (gasp) clean my room.  When I wanted a pair of (way-overpriced) trendy new Jordache jeans, she made me earn HALF the money myself so I would appreciate the value of them.  When my brother and I were a little older my Dad went into business for himself, and my Mom ran the office.  Which meant that sometimes when I came home from school, I had to clean house and get dinner started!  Mean, right?
Now that I'm a Mom myself, I can actually appreciate all those mean things she did. Good or bad, they made me the person I am today.  These days I'm trying to be a mean Mom myself.  Yep, all those chores, and responsibilities I hated so much - I'm passin' 'em all on to MY kids.  Because that's what gave me the work ethic and personal morals that I have today.  And I expect nothing less of my boys.  Maybe one day when they're all grown up and have kids of their own they'll appreciate the fact that I wasn't the "cool Mom".  For now, to them I'm just mean.  And that's OK.  I kinda think that means I'm doing my job.
Everyone she's ever worked with - they all LOVE my Mom.  Neighbors, acquaintances - they'll all tell you how great she is.  She's just that kind of person.  Animal lover.  Smart.  Kind.  Sweet.  Funny.  Giving.  More than a little weird (hey, maybe that's where I get it from!).  They all describe my Mom.
Thanks for being mean to me all those years, Mom.  I love you more than you'll ever realize! And even though we're not together on your birthday, I hope you have an AWESOME day.