As a young boy, many of the highlights I remember were spent with my Mom. My mom was my best friend and favorite companion. In elementary school, she would occasionally come eat lunch with me at school. I remember that on the days she came, I felt like the coolest kid in school. My mother was always taking me on new adventures or trying new things. I danced at the flea market to “Don’t Mess With My Toot Toot” and “Hey Baby, Que Paso” while she encouraged me. One of my first shopping sprees was just before Christmas at North Star Mall where we shopped for hours and bought more things than I had ever seen. She took me on my first airplane ride, introduced me to farm animals, showed me the Whitehouse and the Washington Monument, and took me on my first ferry boat ride. Some of my favorite memories are staying up late playing Monopoly or Battleship by candle light. As a boy, there was nobody in my life that was smarter, prettier, or more awesome than my mom and I knew she felt the same way about me. I was obviously her favorite. At least, that is how she always made me feel. From my mother, I inherited a love of animals, food and free stuff. I also learned how to spend money and have fun when you have it, but make $5.00 last all week when you don’t. I have a really hard time passing up puppies or stray dogs without wanting to take them all home. I never pass on a free meal and I have a collection of free pens that drives my wife crazy.
I now have the pleasure of watching my son, Jack, interact with his mother. I see that same look in his eyes when he looks at my wife. She can make him laugh harder than anyone else, and when he is sad her touch is the only one that can truly comfort him. In his pleas of “Mama…”, I hear the trust and love he feels for her. I love watching them interact and love seeing how safe he feels in her arms. I can tell that in his eyes, he sees her as his protector, his best friend, and the most beautiful person in the universe. My wife is all those things. She is the first to jump out of bed when he cries, changes ten times more diapers than me, constantly finds new adventures to share with Jack and can create fun in any situation for him. It is an honor for me to have a front row seat to a beautiful mother/son relationship. As we are now expecting our second son this October, I am so excited that another young man will have the benefit of a being reared by an awesome mother.
There is a special bond between mothers and sons. I see it in my clients when mothers tell me about their grown up boys and also when I see men talk about the love and concern they have for their mother who may not be aging as gracefully as they hoped. Moms never seem to stay mad at their sons for long no matter how bad they mess up. The relationship between a mother and her son is to me just one more example of the love God has for all of his children.