The Pretend Mommy
Last week I was hanging out with Mac. Your typical Wednesday night at cheer. Trying to watch one child and keep the other child entertained. I'm sure you've been there many times, and in those situations you tend to tune out one of your kids, because let's face it, the brain of a mother can only hold so much information. The brain of a mother, while multitasking a multitude of things, can really only listen to one person at a time. And last Wednesday I was only half listening to Mac. It wasn't until my mom, who was with us, said, "Did she just say her pretend mommy?".
Yup. She did. Her Pretend Mommy.
So I asked her, Mac what did you say, and she proceeded to tell me in great detail that her Pretend Mommy was going to take her to Target and buy her toys. That her Pretend Mommy was going to come to a tea party for her and Black Baby. That her Pretend Mommy was going to let her bake cookies with sprinkles. Hmmm. So I asked her, What else does your Pretend Mommy do?
"She gives me chocolate so she can type on her computer"
Ouch, and I'm pretty sure your real Mommy does that too Mac...
I'm not devastated by the Pretend Mommy bit. I'm sure when I was a kid, I had a pretend mommy that did all the stuff my real mommy didn't. Like put make up on me, or let me wear her high heels, which for the record my mother has never worn. I'm sure that most kids have a pretend mommy that let's them eat chocolate for breakfast and drink sodas all day. A pretend mommy that takes them to the park on the hottest day of the year, and let's them play in the mud twenty minutes before bedtime.
What most kids don't realize is that Real Mommies do the Pretend Mommy stuff too. Just not every day, and just not when the kids always want it. Because Real Mommies still have to make dinner, and drive the carpool, and work real jobs. Sometimes there aren't enough hours in the day for tea parties, and Target toy sprees, or chocolate bar breakfast buffets. Real Mommies have to set rules that are mostly followed, they have to set schedules that get broken, and they have to do these things to feel like they are the Good Mommies they aspire to be. They do all these things to be the Good Mommies that they are.
I laughed out loud when Mac told me about her Pretend Mommy. It was just the kind of thing Mac would say to bust me. But then I did the one thing her Pretend Mommy could never do, the one thing that makes Mac's Real Mommy better than any Pretend Mommy anywhere. I gave her a real hug and a real kiss.
Take that Pretend Mommy.
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