Mother's Love

Motherly Love

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Erma Bombeck

"You don't love me!"  How many times have your kids laid that one on you?  And how many times have you, as a parent, resisted the urge to tell them how much?

Someday, when my children are old enough to understand the logic 
that motivates a mother, I'll tell them:

I loved you enough to bug you about where you were going, with 
whom, and what time you would get home.

I loved you enough to be silent and let you discover your hand- 
picked friend was a creep.

I loved you enough to make you return a Milky Way with a bite out 
of it to a drugstore and confess,  "I stole this."

I loved you enough to stand over you for two hours while you 
cleaned your bedroom, a job that would have taken me 15 minutes.

I loved you enough to not make excuses for your lack of respect or 
your bad manners.

I loved you enough to ignore  "what every other mother"  did.

I loved you enough to figure you would lie about the party being 
chaperoned but forgive you for it....after discovering I was right.

I loved you enough to let you stumble, fall and fail so that you 
could learn to stand alone.

I loved you enough to accept you for who you are, not what I 
wanted you to be.

But most of all, I loved you enough to say no when you hated me 
for it. That was the hardest part of all.