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Mom-hood, It's a Wonderful Thing.....and then

I've been the mom to a son for the past 10 Mother's Days. I've had a Mother's Day with a daughter for 8. In reflection on how life changes once you become the caretaker and provider of love and nourishment for another person, I've realized that some experiences happen only to those people who have taken on that role. In honor of my 2 kids, here are 10 things that are great, superb, jolly, good and positive about being a mom, and then 8 things that could be categorized as unfortunate, sad, negative, icky or such.

10a) It's great to have kids who burst through the door every afternoon after school and have their heart jump with joy when they see you.

10b) It's not so great when you're in a restaurant and you realize that you dripped yellow mustard all over the baby's legs, new outfit and it's soaked into your entire lap as well....even worse when the mustard is warm and doesn't smell like mustard should.

9a) It's great to have kids love to hear you to sing their favorite lullaby at night, even when everybody else would beg you not to sing.

9b) It's not so great when you have to sing that same song twice a night, (once for each kid) and you have been doing so for the last 10 years.

8a) It's great that you can get in the car and go to Chuck E Cheese, McDonald's Playland and the video arcade and make every passenger happy for the night.

8b) It's not so great when I go grocery shopping with kids in tow and they drive the cart into every shopper we pass in the aisle.

7a) It's great to get to 'hero' status just by buying chocolate-frosted sugar bomb cereal.

7b) It's not so great when the kids realize you're not perfect because you overreacted and yelled at them when they didn't deserve it.

6a) It's great to get in the car to run down to meet your kids for lunch at school, and know you'll be like a celebrity they introduce all their friends to.

6b) It's not so great to get in the car for the 7th time of the day to make an emergency run down to school for an important piece of forgotten homework.

5a) It's great to have somebody come up and tell you that your kid is unusually bright or kind or notice some equally outstanding trait about them.

5b) It's not so great when you have to referee the umpteenth bickering topic of the evening.

4a) It's great to have your kid emulate a positive character trait without you forcing them to.

4b) It's not so great to have that aching feeling you get when you have to correct your kid for lying, being disrespectful or unkind.

3a) It's great to have somebody willing to tell an unending string of jokes to you for the entire evening.

3b) It's not so great to coach your kid through their first experience of getting their feelings hurt. That's where my kickboxing experience comes in handy.

2) It's great to have somebody sit on your lap to cheer you up when you are blue.

1) It's great to know that when their all grown up, I'll get to always be the 'good guy' (grandma) and never have to be the 'bad guy'!

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