Momness
By Melanie Lewis
Momness: The state of being motherly towards others. Nurturing and making personal observations, and fixing.
Apparently, I have been “moming” a friend of mine by asking if they remembered top turn the lights off, is the stove off, etc.
It’s also a “mom” trait to be able to find something. How often do you hear cries of “Where are my keys?” or “Where are my baseball pants?” or “Where is my blue duffel bag?” No one else in the family seems capable of finding anything. But as a Mom I can usually find the missing item in less than one minute. It’s a Mom thing apparently.
Worrying about everyone’s interpersonal relationships is also a “Mom thing.” I had a friend with six children. When they were younger, she would, for Christmas, get cards and gifts from each child to each other child. “Do you know how many relationships I have to maintain?” she said to me, exasperated one day.
On the flip side of this, it is a Mom’s greatest joy to see her children getting along and even building upon a friendship. One of my other friends has two boys, who often fought with each other growing up. Now they are in their twenties. They live close to each other in Nashville. She is overjoyed that they eat dinner together every night and help each other out all the time.
In fact, the worst part of being a Mom might be worrying. Are they going to make it to their destination OK? Is everything going to get along at Thanksgiving? Did we offend them in any way? All of these kinds of thoughts don’t get you anywhere though. The best part of Momness is the ability to love someone outside of yourself with a love that is perhaps even more powerful than any other love you have ever known.