Mommy To The Max:
Seven Wonders of a Mother's World
by Debi Stack
www.maxedout.net
The world is full of wonders: the pyramids of Egypt, the Grand Canyon, what any woman ever saw in Woody Allen. But a mother's world has wonders all its own. Below are just seven that I find both awesome and unanswerable.
A mother wonders why fussy babies will demand their mothers hold them standing instead of sitting, even though the babies' position doesn't change at all. She stands-the baby calms. She sits-the baby cries. How can infants, who will put any disgusting object in their mouths without hesitation, have such high standards for posture?
A mother wonders why the gravitational pull of a kitchen floor is directly related to how clean it is. No one seems to drip juice or drop eggs on a dirty floor. But on the very day that we scrub and super-shine our floors, plates of syrupy-pancakes topple of their own accord.
A mother wonders why a child can ignore a certain toy for months and scornfully reject it as being "for babies" until he spots it on the garage sale table or in the give-away box. Suddenly, he clutches the rescued item protectively, tells you it's his "favorite" and looks at you as if you'd just shot Bambi.
A mother wonders why her preschooler can spend 45 minutes taking a bath, use an entire bottle of shampoo and yet emerge dry and dirty from the waist up.
A mother wonders why her husband's way of telling the kids goodnight is to swing them in the air, wrestle with them on the floor and chase them through the house until everyone is sweaty and somebody gets hurt.
A mother wonders why her own mother, who forbade elbows on the table and other abominations, allows a toddler-grandchild to make his own indoor sand pile by pouring boxes of cereal on the floor and then declares the resulting mess to be, "Adorable!"
A mother wonders why even on days when she's too maxed out to fix her hair or put on makeup, she hears her children say, "You're the prettiest mommy in the world."
Debi Stack is an author, speaker and media guest who addresses the topics of stress, overcommitment and perfectionism. Her humorous, self-help book for maxed-out women, Martha to the Max: Balanced Living for Perfectionists, is in multiple printings and translations. Visit
www.maxedout.net
. This "Mommy to the Max" column is used by www.drlaura.com with permission. Copyright 2002. All forms of reproduction strictly prohibited.
