My sister and I used to say, "If I ever get like mom, just slap me" I learned how to not be like my mother. My mother was not a good mother, nor was she a good grandmother to my children and my nieces and nephews.

She felt like children shouldn’t make noise. We were only aloud to play outside, not in the house.

When my brother and I were in elementary school, she wanted us to take baths when we got home from school, then, she would send us outside and we weren’t aloud to get dirty. Still to this day when I think about it, it blows my mind what her thinking was.

As I read all of the comments before me, I am blown away by the fact that I can find something in common with just about each one of them!

No, I am not like my mother, although there definitely was a time in my life when I could have been. I also fight it everyday - fortunately, most days it is not a struggle. On the days when I feel like I am wrestling with the alligator that is my  mother’s behavior, I ask others for help, support and forgiveness.

Some of these mom stories sadden me.  I had a wonderful childhood because of two very fun loving and supportive parents.

My mom was a kid magnet.  During the summer, there were always neighborhood kids running in and out of our house, doors slamming and kids squealing.  While I was in school, sometimes she would bake a pie, and there would always be a much smaller pie just for me when I came home. She was always the homeroom mother who brought Valentine and Christmas cookies to my class. During the teen years, there were sleep overs.  I was the last to leave home for the university.  My mom told me later that she was so depessed with empty nest syndrome.  I never knew but should have.

I am like my mom in that she loved her own kids fiercely, but she loved other parents’ children, too. 

When it comes to my mother, it’s a mixed blessing! While I admire her for her drive, her creativity and her love of life that keeps her moving ever forward even at 71, I experience frustration sometimes for those same qualities! I know she loves me though sometimes I am fascinated by how she shows it. I am far beyond the point of needing her approval to define me because well, it ain’t gonna happen. My brother says my mannerisms are like hers (Double ACK!) and that thought disturbs and delights at the same time. 

All in all, I’d still want to be her when I grow up.

Love you, Ma! 

I checked other because it’s yes in some ways and no in others. I’m thankful for the yes’s and just as thankful for the no’s.

My mom was fiercely independent and something of a risk taker. She never saw herself simply through the eyes of others and most definitely not through the eyes of men. She was extremely intuitive. Intuitive enough that I’d call her psychic. She had a 4th grade education and it bothered her a lot. So she was an avid reader. Consumed books. I was born in 63 and most of my growing up we never had a TV. We had books. She could hold her own in virtually any subject and probably could have taught history. She had an incredible memory and an affinity for numbers. She raised me to speak my mind and to question authority.

I’m like her in that I don’t see myself through the eyes of others. I feel blessed for that. I don’t rely on validation from men. I think as i grow older that will be a huge blessing. I am curioius like she was. And I am intuitive like she was.

I’m different in that I’m a true extrovert. I get energy from people. My mother was a true introvert. She got drained by people. My mother was much more about ideas than action. I’m more about action than ideas. I have all the self confidence my mother yearned for. And therefore I got to take all of her ideas and make them my reality. I went to college, i found someone i loved, i have good friends and broad horizons. My mother had books and ideas.

We are vastly different my mom and I and yet exactly the same. Isn’t that the way of moms and daughters?

While I look like my mom, which was an eerie feeling when I was in my 30s, I am nothing like her.  THANK GOODNESS!!!

I read a quote that said…..when women gather, they talk about their mothers.

After reading the quote, I have tried to refrain from wasting my time on "mother talks".  

As the first born child, I fulfilled my mother’s dream of being a mother. After that, it was all downhill.