Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Remember Your Mother's

This is topic Remember Your Mother's - May 13th in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 05-07-2001, 09:24 PM:

Happy Mother's Day Ladies.....

If you send this to just one person, it should make it all the way around the World by Mother's Day.

This is for all the mothers who froze their buns off on metal bleachers at football games Friday night instead of watching from cars, so that when their kids asked, "Did you see me?" they could say, "Of course, I wouldn't have missed it for the world," and mean it.

This is for all the mothers who have sat up all night with sick toddlers in their arms, wiping up barf laced with Oscar Mayer wieners and cherry Kool-Aid saying, "It's OK honey, Mommy's here."

This is for all the mothers of Kosovo who fled in the night and can't find their children.

This is for the mothers who gave birth to babies they'll never see. And the mothers who took those babies and gave them homes.

For all the mothers of the victims of the Colorado shooting, and the mothers of the ones who were responsible. For the mothers of the survivors, and the mothers who sat in front of their TVs in horror, hugging their child who just came home from school, safely.

For all the mothers who run carpools and make cookies and sew Halloween costumes. And all the mothers who DON'T.

What makes a good Mother anyway? Is it patience? Compassion? Broad hips? The ability to nurse a baby, cook dinner, and sew a button on a shirt, all at the same time? Or is it heart?

Is it the ache you feel when you watch your son or daughter disappear down the street, walking to school alone for the very first time? The jolt that takes you from sleep to dread, from bed to crib at 2 A.M. to put your hand on the back of a sleeping baby? The need to flee from wherever you are and hug your child when you hear news of a school shooting, a fire, a car accident, a baby dying?

So this is for all the mothers who sat down with their children and explained all about making babies. And for all the mothers who wanted to but just couldn't.

This is for reading "Goodnight, Moon" twice a night for a year. And then reading it again. "Just one more time."

This is for all the mothers who yell at their kids in the grocery store and swat them in despair and stomp their feet like a tired 2-year old who wants ice cream before dinner.

This is for all the mothers who taught their children to tie their shoelaces before they started school. And for all the mothers who opted for Velcro instead.

For all the mothers who bite their lips sometimes until they bleed when their 14 year olds dye their hair green. Who lock themselves in the bathroom when babies keep crying and won't stop.

This is for all the mothers who show up at work with spit-up in their hair and milk stains on their blouses and diapers in their purse.

This is for all the mothers who teach their sons to cook and their daughters to sink a jump shot.

This is for all mothers whose heads turn automatically when a little voice calls "Mom?" in a crowd, even though they know their own off spring are at home.

This is for mothers who put pinwheels and teddy bears on their children's graves.

This is for mothers whose children have gone astray, who can't find the words to reach them. This is for all the mothers who sent their sons to school with stomachaches, assuring them they'd be just FINE once they gotthere, only to get calls from the school nurse an hour later asking them to please pick them up. Right away.

This is for young mothers stumbling through diaper changes and sleep deprivation. And mature mothers learning to let go.

For working mothers and stay-at-home mothers. Single mothers and married mothers. Mothers with money, mothers without.

This is for you all. So hang in there. Have a Happy Mother's day...

GOD KNOWS YOU DESERVE IT.

I HOPE YOU KNOW IT TOO.
"Home is what catches you when you fall - and we all fall."

Please pass this to a wonderful mother you know.
(I just did)

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 05-07-2001, 09:38 PM:

Alright! A chain forum thread here on Film-Tech!

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 05-08-2001, 08:07 PM:

Yes and thanks to all those Mom's who brought use into the world thanks is not enough

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 05-08-2001, 09:16 PM:

I printed it out. My mom will like this.

Posted by Glenda Cockrum (Member # 542) on 05-09-2001, 06:37 AM:

Thank you Bob! You made my morning! As a mother of four I remember doing so many of these things ( the sleep deprived one sticks in my mind the most... guess where I found my cordless phone after a night of misery for my youngest!! I remember talking to my sister after the umteenth cup of coffee, then a few hours later heard the vauge noise of my phone... finally found it in the fridge, after realizing I left the milk for my coffee on the counter!!, had to replace the battery the next day!! lol) How my mom managed with six of us I will never know!! Thanks for the smiles and tears, I will give this to many friends.

Posted by Aaron Mehocic (Member # 15) on 05-09-2001, 10:44 PM:

Sadly, my mother passed away on November 29, 2000, aged 48.

Posted by Paul Turner (Member # 832) on 05-09-2001, 11:42 PM:

Aaron. Lost mine late in '99. If your first first mom-less Mother's Day sucks huge, I hope it helps to know it is hard on everyone who has lost a mom. Do what you need to do to get thru it -- hide away from everyone or hang out with the family. I would recommend not doing anything that day that you can't bail on. I was fine my first Mother's Day without my mom . . . . until I wasn't. And there was no warning. Sometimes you just need to shut the booth door, tell everyone to piss-off, and try to find that place where you are grateful for the time you had with her.

Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 05-10-2001, 07:03 AM:

I have just read the replies from Aaron and Paul. My deepest condolences to you both on the loss of your Mother's. I also lost my mother many years ago.
I still celebrate Mother's day with my family. Calls to my brother and sister's happen, on this day as we celebrate her life.

My children now celebrate Mothers Day with my wife and we all sit down for a family meal with all the grand children. We tell them about our own mothers on this day. It's like passing the family history down through stories about a person who is no longer with us.

As long as your Mothers are remembered your Mom's are with you.

Posted by Dave Bird (Member # 490) on 05-10-2001, 07:53 AM:

Aaron and Paul, I've been there too. Lost my mom in the fall of '92 aged 45, dad about a year later 47. The best advice I ever got was to always remember that "You wouldn't trade the all-too-short years you had with your loved ones for a hundred with anyone else." Very true. I eulogized my father, and reminded every one to (no matter whether they disagreed on things or what) tell your family and friends that you LOVE them, sometimes you don't get the chance. The only other thing I want to add, is do what you need to, block it out for a while, but not too long. I found that I was starting to block things and not speak of my parents so much that I began to forget some of the things they said, did, even what they looked like. So I pulled out of it, talk about them often, and wish dearly they could've met my children. Hope it helps....

Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 05-10-2001, 08:11 AM:

Here is another I came across last night. Author unknown.

Subject: Mean Moms

Someday when my children are old enough understand the logic that
motivates a parent, I will tell them

I loved you enough...to ask where you were going, with whom, and what time
you would be home.

I loved you enough...to insist that you save your
money and buy a bike for
yourself even though we could afford to buy one for you.

I loved you enough...to be silent and let you
discover that your new best friend
was a creep.

I loved you enough...to make you go pay for the bubble gum you had taken and
tell the clerk, "I stole this yesterday and want to pay for it."

I loved you enough...to stand over you for two hours while you cleaned your
room, a job that should have taken 15 minutes.

I loved you enough...to let you see anger,
disappointment, and tears in my
eyes. Children must learn that their parents aren't perfect.

I loved you enough...to let you assume the
responsibility for your actions
even when the penalties were so harsh they almost broke my heart.

But most of all, I loved you enough...to say NO when I knew you would hate me for it. Those were the most difficult battles of all.

I'm glad I won them, because in the end you won,
too. And someday when your
children are old enough to understand thlogic that
motivates parents, you will tell them...

Was your Mom mean? I know mine was. We had the meanest mother in the whole world!

While other kids ate candy for breakfast, we had to have cereal, eggs, and toast.

When others had a Pepsi and a Twinkie for lunch, we had to eat sandwiches.
And you can guess our mother fixed us a dinner that was different from what other kids had, too.

Mother insisted on knowing where we were at all times. You'd think we were convicts in a prison.

She had to know who our friends were, and what we were doing with them.

She insisted that if we said we would be gone for an hour, we would be gone for an hour or less.

We were ashamed to admit it, but she had the nerve to break the Child Labor Laws by making us work. We had to wash the dishes,
make the beds, learn to cook, vacuum the floor, do laundry, empty the trash and all sorts of cruel jobs. I think she would lie awake at night thinking of more things for us to do.

She always insisted on us telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

By the time we were teenagers, she could read our minds. Then, life was really tough!

Mother wouldn't let our friends just honk the horn when they drove up. They had to come up to the door so she could meet them.

While everyone else could date when they were 12 or 13, we had to wait until we were 16.

Because of our mother we missed out on lots of things other kids experienced.
None of us have ever been caught shoplifting,vandalizing other's property or ever arrested for any crime. It was all her fault.

Now that we have left home, we are all educated, honest adults. We are doing
our best to be mean parents just like Mom was.

I think that is what's wrong with the world today.It just doesn't have enough mean moms.

Posted by Paul Turner (Member # 832) on 05-10-2001, 05:54 PM:

Thank you Bob and David. And Aaron for sharing something that makes Mother’s Day a little different from the Hallmark Holiday. We on this site connect via our love for the mechanical and esthetic side of cinema. I have loved movies since I was old enough to watch them. My mom used to let me watch the movie after school, even though my dad had decreed that the TV doesn’t go until after dinner. If he came home early, my mom would quickly shut off the TV and shoo me outside so my dad had no clue.
When I got older and picked up my parent’s Bell&Howell 8mm movie camera, my mom became my number one camera person. She always had a few bucks to get my film back from the drug store or would sneak a roll of fresh film into my lunch so I’d find it at school. It made it easier to get through the day knowing I could burn a few feet before dinner.
Many of us find community on these virtual pages because so few others understand what it means to be the “man (pardon the sexism) behind the curtain” at the theater. We are the people that bring movies to the public and we do it because we love it. Before the Internet, I was unsure how many other people as crazy as me were out there. But, I had something going for me. I had a mom who understood that my affection for the movies was more than putting off chores or fooling around with the movie camera. She knew it from the first time she watched me watch a movie. So no matter how crazy and alone I feel at two in the morning breaking down a print for the Technicolor pick-up that almost never happens, I knew my mom understood. For that I will forever be thankful.