The Most Important Job in the World

It's hard enough to take care of yourself in this world. Everybody's gotta pay bills, feed themselves, get enough sleep, and struggle through every day of a more or less normal life. It's hard bein' a person. Hard to go through life and hold onto that tiny belief that it all means sumthin' or that you'll be successful one day or that you'll be happy one day. Life throws you so many curve balls its hard not to get hit by one let alone take that chance and make it count.


But mothers, mothers have to do it for someone else too. That makes theirs the most important job in the world.



Guys got it good in that everyone kinda expects us to half-ass our way through parenting. They skip out on a family so often it's not even a big deal anymore. Go back fifty years and say "single-mother" or "dead-beat dad" and people would prolly look at you funny. If there was a single parent family it was generally 'cause somebody died. But Dad never had to know how to change a diaper, he didn't have to make dinner, he didn't have to know how to sew, or give the kids a bath. A dad could get by on a job, tossin' the ball around with his son, and disciplinin' the kids.


Mom's the one that had to clean the house, feed the kids, do the laundry, tend to the wounded or sick, make sure everybody was clean and doin' their homework and eatin' their veggies. And today she does that while workin' too.


I went through a period in my life where I got the opportunity to take care of kids. I treated 'em like they were my own for a lil over a year. I'm glad I got this chance even if it meant all that I had to endure with it.


I got to cook for them, clean up after them, take 'em to school, and play with 'em. Ever had a kid wake you up on the saturday you wanted to sleep in by clockin' you on the head with a hard plastic toy? I have. Ever had a kid puke on you? I have. Ever had to change a diaper? Yep, done that too. I've dosed medicine. I left work early to check on them. I plucked 'em down from the furniture they were tryin' to skydive off of. I've done a ton of things that seemed impossible to me a few years before.


But I only did it for a year. I gained a ton of experience but I can't do what a lot of mothers do with ease. My sister's got four kids. Three boys and one girl. The girl is the youngest and the baddest. I can't do what she does. Takin' care of 'em all. Makin' sure they all get what they need to grow up to be respectable people.



I'm not positive I know what it takes for anyone to be a good person. And the work of a mother is never done. My mom still does all she can to make sure I'm a good person. Even if it means micromanaging everything I do. Drives me nuts. But she means well. And she's never gonna stop.



I know I've got mommy issues. She always cut me down. Never respected what I did or still do. "I know you do your doodles." She never made me feel like I was special. "I think all mothers love their first born most." I'm not the first born. I could never have friends over, "They're gonna steal." or "The house is too messy." Lots of issues that have turned me into the nerdiest, broodingest, shyest, flirtiest, funniest, rockstar-ninja-cowboy-writer to ever walk the face of the earth.



My parents have shaped me into most of what I am. I suspect some elements were there and others came later but I think the bulk of the work should be credited to my parents. My father has been a big influence in recent years but my mother did all of the diaper changin', feedin', and all the rest. Mom played a big thankless role. I am eternally ungrateful for all she's done for me. I'm a bastard for that. No defense. I've just taken a lot of it for granted 'cause our personalities tend to clash. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that before.



I should be a better son. We could all stand to be better kids I suppose. Do right by our mothers and remember all the thankless, payless hours they spent worryin' 'bout us and carin' 'bout us.



I could've had a much worse mother. She could've hit me, thrown me out, been hooked on drugs, sold me on the street, any number of unmentionable crimes that other mothers commited against their own children. I'm got off lucky, my mom might be controlling but she never tried to kill me. She cared for me and everything she's ever done for me she felt was in my best interest.