A Story of 3 (or 4) Moms

Story #1--Mom # 1
Or should I call her #1 Mom?
When my mother was a little girl there was a truckload of people going down the street in her little town. A child in the front seat stuck his head out the window to shout something to someone in the bed of the truck as they were going past a telephone pole. The back of the child's head struck the telephone pole. My mother recounted this story any time one of my six siblings or I stuck our head out the car window. Or any time we drove past a telephone pole. And occasionally at bedtime. Just to remind us NEVER to stick our head out the car window. Consequently, and because I have a visual image of this accident created in my head, I never allowed my children to stick ANY body part out the car window. Not your head. Not your arm. Not your feet. Don't let me see your little finger wiggling outside the window. Or I'll have to tell you Grandmas's gruesome story of the little boy from Summerhill.

Story #2--Mom #2
And that is too high to be a ranking. Just ordinal.
One day, on the way to vist my mother, I had Abi strapped safely in her carseat in the back seat and the window down just a little, (You know, just in case she forgot and tried to stick a body part out.) when the child started screaming hysterically. You know the kind of scream that involves blood or pain. I glanced back, pulled over, examined the child and could find no reason for her distress. I calmed her and continued to drive about 10 minutes to my Mom's house. When I unbuckled Abi from her car seat and lifted her out a dead bee fell from the folds of her shirt. The bee had flown in the window as I was driving 55 mph down the road and stung her while she was strapped in the car seat. How was I to know?

Story #3--Mom #3
Hang with me--I'll connect them in a minute.
A six year old is strapped in her car seat. The window is down just a little. She ties one end of the jump rope to her hand and puts the other end out the window. It wraps around the axle and severs her hand. She screams, her mother pulls over. And sees a bloody stump. With no reasonable explanation.

Mothering is something you always keep learning. You learn from books, and from your Mom's advice. And her mistakes and your own mistakes. You learn to ask questions and you learn to ask better questions. (Will there be a boat?) But at the end of the day you find out that there is one more thing that you should have done or one more thing that you could have worried about. And sometimes you just find yourself on the side of the road wondering what the heck just happened here?

One reason it is good to have your kids close together: If you mother for too long it is too hard. On everyone.
So as Alex goes out the door to school I tell him to be honest, respectful, responsible and not to tie a rope around ANY body part and put the other end out the car window.

Story #4--Mom #4
Claire will be a year old tomorrow. She has a great mother. I resist the urge to call her and ask if she's seen that news story about the little girl and the jump rope. Mothering is hard enough.

Sometimes the best thing to do is pray and trust the Father. Is it that I am a slow learner or just that there is so much to learn?.