This post is long overdue. Originally, I meant to write this about Mother's Day wishing all my family and friends who are moms a very happy day. Instead it sat here because I wasn't sure at all about what I wanted to say on this topic. I also felt that I had to find a way to offer a public apology to my daughters for every time I used this phrase - "Because I said so..."
It's something I heard my mother say often enough. She had some memorable sayings for us when we asked for something that she wasn't prepared to give us. For instance, one of us would ask for something like a cookie and she would say, "you know, people in Hell want ice water, too!" Or the other thing she used quite often was "tough tittie, said the Kitty, but the milk's all gone!" It's no wonder I grew up a bit warped! Mind you, she wasn't being mean, Mom was just being funny. Except for the "Because, I AM YOUR MOTHER AND I SAID SO, part. On that score, she was serious.
When my girls came along, I wanted to do everything differently, perfectly, I thought. I am going to be the best mom in the world. My daughters will talk to me about everything and we will be the very best of friends. We will never fight with each other and I would never say "people in Hell want ice water, too!" And I'd rather pull out my tongue than say...BECAUSE I AM YOUR MOTHER AND I SAID SO!!
But I did it. I used the evil words. Honestly, I don't remember SAYING them, but apparently I did, because all three girls remember hearing them. Well, CRAP! If that wasn't a monumental failure on my part. In my own defense, what I really meant to say was that because I am your mother and I love you and I'm trying to help you make good sound decisions so that you can be happy and successful and go to a good college so that you will have a satisfying career and then meet the partner of your dreams and have wonderful children and then live happily ever after in a comfortable house and have great friends that you entertain on the weekends you should hear me out. Yes. That's what I was trying to say...it just came out in a frustrated, "Because I said so!" Do you think that's what my mama was trying to say, too?
I hereby publicly apologize to my three daughters for every time I used the evil words. I think they have all survived and thrived in spite of it all. In fact, it may have given each one of them a bit of "well, I'll show her..." and that's ok, too.
