Values Archives - Becky Mack's Blog of Mild Chaos

I had the meanest mother in the world …

As a teenager I was asked to give talk in church on Mother’s Day. I remember rummaging through a book of poems and short stories (this was long before the internet and “google”) and coming across one that described my mother perfectly. With a few minor changes the story became ‘my story’.

“The Meanest Mother”

I have the meanest mother in the whole world. While other kids ate candy for breakfast, I had to have cereal, eggs or toast. When others had soda and candy for lunch, I had to eat a sandwich. As you can guess, dinner was also different than the other kids. But at least, I wasn’t alone in my sufferings. My two sisters and two brothers had the same mean mother as I did.

My mother insisted upon knowing where we were at ALL times. You’d think we were on a chain gang. She had to know who our friends were and where we were going. She insisted if we said we’d be gone an hour, that we be gone one hour or less–not one hour and one minute.

I am embarrassed to admit it, but she actually spanked us. Not once, but each time we had a mind of our own and did as we pleased. Can you imagine someone actually spanking a child just because he disobeyed? Now you can begin to see how mean she really was.

We had to wear clean clothes and take a bath. The other kids could wear their clothes for days. We reached the height of insults because she often made our clothes herself, just to save money.

The worst is yet to come. We had to be in bed by nine each night and up early the next morning. We couldn’t sleep ’til noon like our friends. So while they slept-my-mother actually had the nerve to break the child-labor law. She made us WORK! We washed dishes, made our beds, learned to cook and all sorts of cruel things.

I believe she laid awake at night thinking up mean things to do to us.

She always insisted upon us telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, even if it killed us-and sometimes it nearly did.

By the time we were teenagers, she was much wiser, and our life became even more unbearable. None of this tooting the horn of a car for us to come running. She embarrassed us to no end by making our dates and friends come to the door to get us. While my friends were dating at the mature age of 13 or 14, my old fashioned mother refused to let me date until I was 16.

Through the years, things didn’t improve a bit. We were expected to be honest, dependable, trustworthy and kind to others. As the years rolled by, first one and then the other of us was put to shame. We graduated from high school and went on to further our education.

My mother was a complete failure as a mother.

Each of my siblings went on to marry and raise children in the same horrible conditions. And whom do we have to blame for the terrible way we turned out? You’re right, our mean mother! Look at the things we missed; we never got to march in a protest parade, take part in a riot, burn draft cards, and a million and one other things that our friends did.

She forced us to grow up with a testimony of a loving Heavenly Father and to know our Savior Jesus Christ. She taught us the power of prayer. She taught us the importance of families and to love and serve and love one another.

NOW YEARS LATER ….

I confess! I have raised my seven children in the same MEAN way that my mother raised me. Six of my children have graduated from High School, the youngest at home is on track to do the same. Three have their bachelors degrees, two daughters have their cosmetology license. (they keep my gray hairs covered) Four are married and are raising their children in the same mean way.

Thank you mom for smothering me with your love and most of all for your example of living life with integrity, dignity and for the courage to teach morals and values that I pray will carry on for generations to come.