When I meet a smart, kind, interesting, well-adjusted, cool woman in her early 20s, I immediately ask her about her mother. Actually I drill the poor girl…”what was your relationship like”, “how did she influence you”, “are you close”, “what do you love most about her.” I want the insider information…the full scoop, as I think the best lessons tend to come from those mothers that walked before me and happened to turn out great kids along the way.
As luck would have it, our intern Caitlin Adams happens to be a smart, kind, interesting, well-adjusted, cool woman in her early 20s. And she’s more than happy to be drilled about her mom (or she’s a really good liar). So happy in fact, that she’s agreed to occasionally share some lessons she learned from her mom here on D Moms Daily.
Herewith her first installment, Enjoy!
(Oh and for the record, I fully plan to share this with my family the next time they complain about my morning person tendencies. Thanks Caitlin.)
*****
By: Caitlin Adams
I somehow lucked out with a mom that defies the odds. She has Christie Brinkley’s looks, Julia Child’s cooking skills, and Superwoman’s knack for saving just about anything. As if this entirely unfair combination isn’t enough, my mom somehow also manages to be a morning person. It is a conundrum that to this day I cannot wrap my head around. Even after four children, a husband that worked late nights and early mornings, and sons with basketball practice before the sun rose, my mom has always been at her best in the early hours.
Perhaps one of the greatest lessons my mom bestowed on us as children is the way she always welcomed the morning. She was a firm believer that your morning set the tone for your entire day. While most woke to the incessant beeping of an alarm clock, we were startled awake by a gleeful chant my mom had coined. She would run in our rooms and jump on our beds singing “Who’s gonna have a great day today?” to which we would jump up and respond “I’m gonna have a great day today!!!” This little chant got us ready for whatever tests, games, or junior high drama life threw at us.
As my brothers and I got older, our excited reaction to this morning routine turned into throwing the pillow over our heads and begging for just five more minutes. In typical teenage fashion, we thought our mom was weird for being so hyper. She kept chanting and we kept complaining, and after a while she got deflated and the chants stopped.
Now that my brothers and I have moved out of the house, our early mornings together are one of the things I treasure most. I realize now what a special person it takes to run a family and still treat every day as a gift. It took a little growing up, but I now see that my mom was trying to get our spirits up and create memories that would last a lifetime. Good news mom: it worked. I’m not trying to act like I wake up every morning shooting rainbows out of my fingertips, but there is something to my mom’s take on the morning. Every now and then my mom will send me a “who’s gonna have a great day today” text, and I break out into a smile knowing that day will be a special one.
