Saturday, June 02, 2007

I hope she plays the drums.

This may be hard for some of you to believe...but I think there are some people out there who don’t think of me as a Mom.

I know, I know. I can hear you all saying,

“No!”

“Say it isn’t so!”

“Get outta town...and take your tent!”

I know it sounds preposterous (I say calmly as I wipe my hands on my floral-print apron), but I’m sure that’s what some are thinking. And I don’t blame them.

If we just step back to, like, the dawn of time. I was a Type-A workaholic and my participation in my few outside interests was basically dictated by how I felt after going out on the piss with my peeps on weekend nights. I rocked at my job, I dated drummers and I got tattoos.

And then I met Floyd...so I didn’t date drummers anymore.

As I’m writing this I’m finding myself wanting to make the argument of WHY people might find it hard to see me as a mother and HOW I’ve evolved and WHY I will be an amazing mother. But I think those topics are superfluous to what’s really eating me right now. I think I’m most interested in people’s expectations of what a mother SHOULD look like, SHOULD act like, and how a mother SHOULD behave.

Now, in all fairness, it’s 7am on Saturday AM and I’m not prone to having great, deep thoughts at this hour (nor at any hour for that matter)...so I’m just throwing this stuff out there, because I need to process.

I think that many people of my generation might view their own mothers as non-traditional. I think the 60’s may have been the first time that women had run shrieking from the June Cleaver model of motherhood en masse. My Mom was one of those women. While she was a very young mother in the late 60s I think she was relatively conservative, but still quite non-traditional. She focused on her career, she dated (no drummers that I know of) and I don’t think I ever saw her bake. Our family time was ordering pizza on Friday nights and watching Barney Miller (or Sunday night’s Dance Fever with Deney Terrio). Not very traditional, but good. And I wonder what sorts of opinions she had to face regarding her parenting methods and I think about what opinions ALL mothers (and mothers-to-be) have to deal with.

It seems that one of the really cool things about being a Mom now is that we have, comparatively, many different role models for motherhood in the media. Being a great mom is really “in” right now. There are loads of images and stories about non-traditional mothers raising their conspicuous families in pretty non-traditional ways. It’s awesome really. Yet, while it may not be surprising to see a woman with pink hair, a sleeve of tats on one arm and a baby in the other in my neighborhood (back in Portland), I wonder what sorts of opinions get flung her way when she travels outside of our ‘hood, to the Safeway store in the suburbs. Opinions o-plenty to be sure, because, despite the recent media, she doesn’t look like what most people think of as “motherly”.

I look in the mirror every day now and I think, “do I look like a mother?” Seriously. And not just, “do I look like a mother?” but “do I look like a GOOD mother?” Ugh. I embrace the lady with the pink hair and the tattoos as a perfectly appropriate vision of motherhood. So where are these thoughts coming from? Deep within my psyche I suppose. They’re there. They’re inside all of us that have been raised in the western world. We all have this image of Mom, Mum, Mummy, Ma, Mother, whatever, and she probably doesn’t have a septum piercing. Whether we believe in this image of motherhood or not doesn’t really matter. It’s primal and we are affected by it.

It’s been just over two weeks now that I’ve been thinking of myself as a mom and, fortunately, I feel pretty darn comfortable in that role. I think it’s because motherhood is coming to me later in life. This means, to me, that I’ve had a lot of time to indulge myself and now I’m ready to honor and indulge somebody else. It does not mean, however, that I am ready to give up who I am. I think there are still many messages out there that conspire to encourage women to believe that we aren’t truly “good” until we’ve completely given up our own personal interests and sacrificed ourselves on the altar of the Baby God. I realize that how we define ourselves essentially changes when we have children, but I don’t think that needs to entail turning our backs on pieces of ourselves that may not serve to uphold our maternal image. While it may satisfy the grandparents or the neighbors, I don’t think it serves the mother or the father (or the husband) or the child very well. Just like we deserve the “whole” woman, so do the people we love.

So, essentially, if this jammin’-Mammy wants to put on her biker jacket, sport her tats, and go see an “X” concert, you can bet your britches it’s gonna happen (after the essential attachment and transition period of course)…and, come to think of it, Thor’s gonna get a drum kit for her birthday.

Like mother, like daughter...and proud of it.

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12 Comments:

Blogger aimeeg said...

So much how I want to be as a mom. And I DO play the drums, so she will definitely be rockin.

12:48 PM  
Blogger walternatives said...

Your post gave me pause, causing me pull up an image of how I visualize Mom - instantaneous image. What I got was a woman holding a child to her chest, smelling her child's hair, eyes closed, in bliss, with little arms around Mom's neck. That's Mothering, in its essence, for me.
Lovely post, sweetie.

2:03 PM  
Blogger kitchu said...

I'm taking up the drums again and finding my own beat... I love this post. You rock. Literally.

2:20 PM  
Blogger Doris & Ez said...

Well, I'm sure I must have baked something. . sometime? But you're right, calling for takeout was my specialty! And I'm here to tell you, non-traditional moms can turn out great kids (as I'm sure you will attest!) You and Floyd were meant for this. . See you soon.

2:33 PM  
Blogger wzgirl said...

Is X still playing? Now that is some staying power! And, Thor needs to learn all about that.

Ok - now I'm tearing up. Just read your Mom's post.

XOXOXO

(I mean) XXXXXXX

4:14 PM  
Blogger atomic mama said...

And it really shouldn't be any other way...!!!

(good thing those septum holes seem to stay open FOREVER. heh)

6:30 PM  
Blogger FDChief said...

Darlin', you know I loves me some Millers. You are totally the epitome of studly cool to me, a hopelessly geeky geonerd.

But.

In fifteen years - ripped T-shirt, nose stud, drum set and all - you will be the hopelessly dorky, out-of-it mom of a fiercely independant teenager.

As Jesus said in the Book of MAtthew: A prophet is not without honour, save in His own country, and in His own house, and to His own freakin' KIDS, you ungrateful little bastards, I bled and died for you!!"

So - to us you will always be the ginchiest girl in school. But I'll bet you will have a hard time convincing Thor to let you borrow the tom-tom...

2:54 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I LOVE this post! Mind if I post a link to it on my blog?

5:07 PM  
Blogger Mamacita said...

Its too damn bad you don't live closer.....I have a kid's drum kit for sale.....cheap!

12:58 AM  
Blogger Jessi said...

Yes, yes and YES! Awesome post.

4:05 AM  
Blogger Sam said...

The only thing that really matters about being a GOOD mom is to love your child. By loving your child, you do whatever it takes to make that child happy, safe, loved, and cherished. Does anything else really matter? And yes, I was also a drummer. I blew out all the ligaments in my wrist being a damn good one too!

Sam @ Just Keep Swimming
http://samcampbell.blogspot.com

5:49 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

This makes me laugh!!! Friend Joelle's kids rock out to Korn in the car all the time.. the epidemy of this post.
You know you're a mom when you're wearing that biker jacket, with some sexy boots (b/c we ALL know you have to have your boots), jammin out to some rock music ~ with a booger on your back.
(0:

1:08 AM  

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