HILLARY WAS RIGHT: IT DOES TAKE A VILLAGE

First, it's just like a woman, on Mother's Day, to go back 15 or so years ago and dredge up an old fight.  Yep that's me.......

I remember years ago when Hillary Clinton got slammed for saying "It takes a village to raise a child"  Can someone tell me WHY that ticked people off?  Then Bob Dole got on the band wagon and said: "with all due respect, I am here to tell you, it does not take a village to raise a child. It takes a family to raise a child"  I think what he probably meant was " it doesn't take a village to raise a child, but a staff of nanny's sure does come in handy" 

Well Mr. Dole as an experienced mother of three who worked her ass off being both mother and career person, let me tell you it does take a village.  Granted, in this village there were a lot of family, but it's a village none the less. It's a village I can never thank enough.  First, I had an AWESOME babysitter.  That is the key to working....a great babysitter.  She had three kids of her own, was a wonderful Christian person, and treated my kids as her own.  Linda, came to my house, she would take them to pre-school, to the library, and basically just treated them as though they were hers.  When my kids were sick she stayed with them.  I did not have to miss work.  Believe me, as a working mom, these are things that you struggle with daily. 

There were times when Jonathan was playing ball I had to grovel to another parent on the team to PLEASE get Jonathan to practice or a game because I was tied up at work and couldn't leave. 

My Aunt Valeria who lives next door to me would go pick my sick kids up at school for me.  She would bring in an occasional dinner, or bake something. 

My biggest supporter and help however was my mom.  ..I had a ton of help raising my kids from my mom.  A ton.  She was a phone call and three mile drive away when and if I needed anything.  She always believed it was very important for John and I to get away.  She comes from the old school where you take care of your mate because that's who you are stuck with after the kids are gone.  I totally agree.  She would take the kids on the weekends to give us breaks.  She would cook meals, do laundry and occasionally clean my house.  I never had to be sick and take care of the kids.  She was my nurse.  She would talk me down when I thought I may have accidentally killed one of my own. When I had my first baby she would remind me often that babies are hard to kill and It probably wouldn't happen accidentally. (she was trying to get me to relax when handling the baby)  She was a wonderful grandma.  I never had grandparents so I was so happy that my kids could have good ones. The kids have wonderful memories of both their grandparents.  There is a certain amount of dysfunction in every family whether you want to admit it or not.  God put it there so we would have something to laugh about later.

People are often appalled because my mom will tell people she doesn't like kids. She told someone this when they were placing their kid in the church nursery and she was the babysitter. I'm not sure this did much to help church attendance.  She's like WC Fields she likes children......fried.  Well, it's just not true.  There were some years she liked me OK.  I don't think she was crazy about me in grade school.  Listen, if home had been more fun, maybe I would have thought school was more than to play and eat lunch with my friends.  I didn't realize math was THAT important. If you ever saw my mom with kids you would see, she is full of crap about not liking them.What she didn't like was the constant worry.  Hells bells I can relate to that, but it's part of life.  If we cut out the things that make us worry, we wouldn't have mortgages, jobs, kids or husbands. Worry and concerns are a part of life.

So Mr. Dole it does take a village. (is he the guy that does the Viagra commercials,  whose insurance pays for it?  I guess we are paying him to have sex....that slut!   sorry I digress yet again)    Mine happened to be a village of church family, Sunday School teachers, youth leaders,4H leaders, coaches, neighbors, friends and biological family.  I thank God for all of them.

I have always loved being a mom.  I know I kid around  about how "bad" they were,but do you really want to hear that they helped an old lady cross the street? Or received all A's and were constantly on the honor roll......Good, because none of that happened. 

So today I give kudos to my mom and the other villagers who did really nice, kind things for our family.  I know my mom loves me...... just two months ago she told me the one thing she would do differently in her life is have only one child, I'm pretty sure, she believes I'm the oldest.  That's my mom.