Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you whom it may apply to, and Happy Mother's Day to you future moms as well. I was about to sit down and write about my weekend trip last week with the cute neighbor, but then I changed my mind and decided to write about moms instead after reading Tina Fey's Prayer for my Daughter. I have the World's Greatest Mom, even though I haven't exactly gotten around to sending her a card yet. But I think this is a good start.

Dear Mom,

I may not seem to have always appreciated how awesome you are, but 28 years and 2 different jobs as a nanny have really given me some perspective on that subject.

First of all, I want to say thank you for not hiring a nanny to raise me. No, really. I really appreciate the fact that you weren't more concerned with climbing any ladders and were happy to come home before 7pm and have dinner with me. I know we weren't the wealthiest family in town, and I know that we couldn't afford the "cool clothes" and lived on a budget, but you know what? That's ok. I may have acted like a brat about it when I was a kid, but now I realize that I'm better off now. It was better to have had my parents around than to have had whatever was the latest fashion in 1997. I would have only regretted it anyway.

Speaking of which, thank you for never buying me the Nintendo or GameBoy I so badly wanted as a child. I must have asked well over 800 times between 1st and 6th grades, and every time you told me to go read a book or go outside and play. Now I am a very active former librarian. Go figure.

Thank you for insisting that the entire family sit down together every day for dinner. Even if we had to eat at 4:30pm or 9pm, all 4 of us had to be present. It's why Grayer and I are such stable adults (don't laugh) and the kids I baby-sit for (who eat dinner with me, their nanny, 5 days a week) are already in therapy, and most likely will be forever.

And I may have been embarrassed by how loudly you cheered at all my softball games, but it really meant a lot that you were there. For every single one of them. I noticed, and I certainly haven't forgotten. Same goes for volleyball games, swim meets, tennis matches, band concerts, and church plays.

I also may make fun of you for practicing your ballroom dance steps in the kitchen with dad, but the truth is, if I ever find Mr. Right, I certainly hope we will still be dancing in the kitchen after 30 years of marriage.

And finally, when people tell me I'm just like my mother, I think "That's really not so bad." You really know what you've been doing all these years.

Happy Mother's Day!