History Lesson#1: Repeating History

I, like countless others in this small world of ours often hear the echo of our mother’s words to us. My mother, most probably your mother and countless other mothers who preceded her most likely used the tried and true phrases which helped to raise us. Am I like my mother? As a teen, I swore I would never raise my child in such a "cruel way". This was the litany of my rebellious youth. I heard these words, to name a few. "Just wait until you have your own kids", "Eat your food- there are starving children in Europe", and one of my own personal favorites: "You want me to drive you to school? We didn’t have cars back then- we walked to school barefoot (added for emphasis) in the snow (it was cold all year according to Mom) uphill for five miles (Gee, Mom, wasn’t there a bus?)".

So help me, I prayed. I would not raise my children by guilt. Later on, I did have a child. Of course, I had to get my life in order first and after numerous tries, I finally had her at thirty-seven years old. I was way too matured to use the "old school" ways of my mother. I have lived to eat those words. With salt and pepper, I might add.

I read every book, every article and piece of new-fangled advice handed to me to ensure I did not follow in my beloved mother’s footsteps. Contrary to my wealth of child-rearing knowledge, my child has been blessed to hear many things that might as well come from my own mother’s mouth. Oh, I did update a few…like "Eat your vegetables….there are kids in the Third-World just begging to be vegetarians.." and "You want cable in your room? In my time, we watched ABC, CBS and NBC…oh and there was PBS. We had TV antennas and it was snowy ALL the time."

I didn’t suffer through those years of words. I grew up to be a relatively able-minded citizen and I know now, deep down, my daughter is well on her way, too. Yes, my mother’s words and her spirit are alive and well in my own home. Am I like my mother? Of course I am and thankful, too.