Member-only story
As a child I always wanted to please my mom, even if that meant telling “white lies” or being sneaky to cover my tracks.
I am the eldest of 5 children and life seemed fairly smooth until it wasn’t. Mom was strict but also very loving and creative. I feared her for reasons I will never quite understand and that’s why I went out of my way to try and please her. Mom did have a short fuse at times but who could blame her since she had 5 young children to raise?
There were times my sisters and brother would become loud after mom told us we were to sit quietly and watch TV while she was cooking. As soon as mom would leave the room my siblings would begin to taunt each other, voices would raise a bit and I would become extremely nervous. I was nervous that mom would come in and begin yelling at everyone. When my siblings got loud (or at least they seemed loud to me), I became louder. I would start yelling, “Shut up, mom’s going to come in here and we’ll all be in trouble.” Who do you think mom heard yelling? It wasn’t my siblings… so, I got sent to my room more than once for yelling at them to quiet down.
I always had the solace that if mom was having a bad day it would get better once dad came home from work. Dad was always happy and had a way of making everyone laugh. We were all at ease when…
