11 Mama Fears
by Sara Sadik
The best thing my mom has ever done for me was give me
permission to doubt. Permission to question. Permission to fear.
As a mom, there are certain things you can never learn.
Certain things that can’t be bought or taught or understood.
You just have to accept and hope that the unpleasant or the
unsure will pass. To which I respond with the question, “when?” I mean, when
will they pass? I always want to shout, I need timelines people not vagueness.
But, still, I’ve learned to look these fears straight in the eye then call my
mom and ask if what I am feeling is normal before bursting into tears and
digging my spoon deep into a carton of macadamia nut brittle.
Here are my 11 fears:
1. That she will not
know how much I love her. I try to tell her. To show her. To explain it. But I’m
scared she will not understand. She most probably won’t until she has kids of
her own and then I’m almost certain I’ll get that phone call that I made to my
mom when my baby was around two months old. It was a sobby squeaky phone call
where I could barely get out the words “love you mama”. In that moment I
understood all she had done for me out of love. And I finally understood that I
would never love her as much as she loved me.
2. That she will not
see me trying. Moms make mistakes. I make a lot of them actually. Wrong
snack. Not enough blankets, too many blankets. Posing as a helicopter mom in
music class or too uninvolved in her dance class.
3. That we won’t be
friends. The sort of friends who go for lunch and chit chat about coloring
and career moves.
4. That I’ll
embarrass her. I’m loud and silly and messy and like to color outside of
the lines. My hair usually looks like a bad perm job after a day at the beach
and even worse first thing in the morning.
5. That I’ll find her
boyfriends attractive. I mean at the rate that things are going we seem to have the
same taste in men. Daddy is, after all, super attractive and she has now begun
trying to kiss him on the lips. I’m still not sure how to address that issue…so
I won’t until her daddy complex has subsided.
6. That she’ll lie to
me and sneak out.
7. That she won’t
want to steal my clothes because I won’t be cool.
8. That I’ll be an
awful mother.
9. That I’ll be an
awful mother-in-law.
10. That I won’t have prepared her to hope for the best but
instead expect the worst of life and people.
11. That I won’t realize any mistakes I’ve made for ten to
twenty years so it’s too late to correct them.
So there you have it there’s my list.
And one more to add:
I’m scared she’ll read this and not find it funny, witty or insightful.
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