Mother, Oh Mother

No one is neutral about the word Mother. It's a subject that is glorious and agonizing. Somewhere between the perfect mother "Margaret" on "Father Knows Best" and the monster who sticks her baby's hands in scalding water or stabs her son twenty times and throws him down the stairs to his death.--might be the truth. Mother is a designation that doesn't rest easy on my tongue. I stubbornly avoided using it for the entire time I lived with my Daddy and his wife. She soooo was not my mother. Yes, I got twisted as a kid because I didn't have a Mother. Ruth had abandoned me when I was about three or so. Mildly, I have always wondered if there shouldn't be a test of sorts to see if people are qualified to have children. What would the test contain? Would it be physical? emotional? mental? Who would decide anyway? Not me, certainly. No doubt before my daughter was born, I would have failed such a test myself. When she was born I was hysterical all the time because I'd never been around kids and just cried when she did. I struggled through it and on this mothers day, I will be surrounded by the loving children of Ruth Adkins Robinson.