Kyle and Kim
Last year Keith and I were driving Kyle and his friend to an event and I asked the friend what he was doing the next day for Mother’s Day. He answered that he was reading his mother a poem. Keith and Kyle almost fell over in astonishment and the friend was confused. I explained that they were expecting (hoping) that he would say “what, tomorrow is Mother’s Day?” and his answer just showed up whatever plans they made. Kyle’s friend explained that the kids have a little show for their mother every year.
Keith and I went on to dinner with two couples and I told them about our car conversation. One husband spent the rest of the evening conjuring up poems, or maybe sailor limericks would be a better description. The second husband worked with his daughters the next morning to plan a list of reading material including poems and excerpts from Little Women and Pride and Prejudice and read them to her throughout the day. So, surprise the Mom in your life and spend a few minutes reading to her.
Suggestions for what to read to your mother:
- Kyle’s friend read “The Lanyard” by Billy Collins and it is a perfect Mother’s Day poem, especially for a child still in school.
- The few pages in Little Women in the first chapter starting with the paragraph “The Clock struck six” when Beth lays out Marmee’s slippers, to when Marmee comes home and announces “I’ve got a treat for you after supper.” Or don’t stop, it’s such a lovely book.
- The poem “To My Mother” by Wendell Berry, perfect for an adult child.
- You may have a wife or friend who needs this story:
“Kids are Dogs, Teens are Cats” by an unknown author
I just realized that while children are dogs … loyal and affectionate …
teenagers are cats.
It’s so easy to be a dog owner. You feed it, train it, boss it around. It
puts its head on your knee and gazes at you as if you were a Rembrandt
painting. It bounds indoors with enthusiasm when you call it.
Then around age 13, your adoring little puppy turns into a big old cat.
When you tell it to come inside, it looks amazed, as if wondering who
died and made you emperor. Instead of dogging your doorstep, it
disappears. You won’t see it again until it gets hungry … then it pauses
on its sprint through the kitchen long enough to turn its nose up at
whatever you’re serving. When you reach out to ruffle its head, in that
old affectionate gesture, it twists away from you then gives you a blank
stare, as if trying to remember where it has seen you before.
You, not realizing that the dog is now a cat, think something must be
desperately wrong with it. It seems so antisocial, so distant, sort of
depressed. It won’t go on family outings. Since you’re the one who
raised it, taught it to fetch and stay and sit on command, you assume
that you did something wrong. Flooded with guilt and fear, you redouble
your efforts to make your pet behave.
Only now you’re dealing with a cat, so everything that worked before
now produces the opposite of the desired result. Call it and it runs
away. Tell it to sit and it jumps on the counter. The more you go toward
it, wringing your hands, the more it moves away.
Instead of continuing to act like a dog owner, you can learn to behave
like a cat owner. Put a dish of food near the door and let it come to
you. But remember that a cat needs your help and your affection too.
Sit still and it will come, seeking that warm, comforting lap it has not
entirely forgotten. Be there to open the door for it.
One day your grown-up child will walk into the kitchen, give you a big
kiss and say, “You’ve been on your feet all day. Let me get those dishes
for you.” Then you’ll realize your cat is a dog again.
Do something wonderful for a mother in life and enjoy the weekend!
Tags: mother's day, poetry, reading aloud, recommended reading
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Who would ever have thought I’d WANT a dog!
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Beautiful piece, Kim and so true. I told my teenage son that I’d read an article about how kids his age still need to be hugged (I had) and then flew at him like a crazy woman and threw my arms around him before he could run away. I repeat the whole thing every once in a while. He’s learned to stick an elbow out but I still land an embrace every once in a while. And we laugh a lot.
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