I have such a great mom. She’s always been utterly supportive of me–whether I chose to play rugby for 12 years, move to North Jersey, or date a jerky Australian guy–and sometimes I sort of take that for granted because it’s just business as usual for our family. Sometimes, though, (like this past Christmas) her actions remind me just what it means to be supportive, even from afar.
My mom reads this blog, of course, and saw that I mentioned needing some more Full Bust Nursing Tanks. So she secretly called up Judy to get my size, figure out which colors I already had, and ordered me three of them for Christmas!
She’d also heard me talking about how I’ve been tending toward dehydration, especially with the forced air heat in my house this dry, dry winter. So what came with the nursing tanks? A gigantic new water bottle. That sucker holds 33 oz.
Those gifts meant so much to me because they reminded me again just how much my mom wants to be there for me while I keep on nursing my 20-month old. She didn’t nurse me or my sister–she followed the advice of her doctor to the letter–so she didn’t really know much about nursing before my kids were born.
But she’s always asked questions and paid attention, been curious and willing to do my dishes or wash my laundry while I snatched some spare sleep or finished a marathon nursing session. As the kids got older and I kept on nursing them, she kept asking questions and really sees how much Felix, for instance, loves to nurse and how comforting it is for him.
So for her to buy me fresh nursing tanks for Christmas, 20 months into my nursing relationship with my baby, really showed me again that she wants to help me, to be there for me no matter what I choose.
How did I get so lucky?
All I can hope to do is pass this parenting style on to my own kids, to support them in their endeavors and find out what it is they need and then do everything in my power to help them get it.
