The Ultimate Job

Your ultimate job as a mother is to prepare your children to leave you. Parenting Magazine (Sep 2006)

Parenting is definitely the ultimate job, but while I agree with that statement, I've got to add that preparing your child to stand on their own two feet should be the biggest job for both parents. I remember about two weeks before my Mom passed away we were having our weekly Sunday telephone conversation (I was away at university) and she said, "You know what? I can go now. I've seen you through the worst." Naturally I scoffed at her for being morbid. But as I hold our Milk Monster and pump her legs to help her work out her gas, I see what all those 'life lessons' my Mom liked to impart were about. They ranged from ones handed down from her own mother like "Don't be afraid of anyone because everyone puts on their underwear one foot at a time" to mainstays like "Those who know better, do better." And now I'm glad that I'd started writing them down in a little Quote Book along with other meaningful sayings.

What's sad is that some parents don't seem to take that job to heart. Or maybe they don't see that coddling their child or demanding to be involved in every last facet of their child's life might unwittingly make the child dependent on them and unable to survive - or perhaps just make good decisions on their own. Then again, a five year old does need its parents to be involved in every fact of their life. So while many parents are agonizing over, "How do I let my child go?" there's also, "When do I let my child go."

Luckily for me, while we do have to financially start planning to see Moo out the house aka send her to college, I do have to deal with the emotional side of that question for a good many years to come.

And on a random note: I'm proud to say that I'm doing my part to prevent more psychos in the world!

How you may ask? By breastfe- er, nursing of course. According to an article in Tuesday's Gleaner: "Mothers who breastfeed their babies for up to six months or more are less likely to to raise children who are psychopaths, according to Dr. Eva Lewis-Fuller, director of family health services in the Ministry of Health." So let me just take time out to pat myself and all the other nursing moms out there on the back :)