A good mom is priceless. And judging by the number of jerks in the world, they’re also somewhat rare. Imagine how much better off we’d be if everyone was guaranteed a good mother. It’s hard to become a bad person if you’ve got a good mom. It’s not impossible, but it’s definitely less likely.I’m lucky enough to have in my life the two best moms I’ve ever seen. One helped make me the person that I am, and the other is helping to make sure that my kids aren’t assholes when they grow up.I’d feel lucky enough to have one of them. That I have them both is an embarrassment of riches.Carol Baker is my mom. She gave birth to me after giving birth to two girls. Realizing she could not possibly improve upon me, she stopped having kids after that. But she’s never stopped being a wonderful mother.
She was my first friend. I have vivid memories from when I was three or four years old and singing the theme song to The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, an early 70s television show that was in reruns when was I a kid. The song was called “Best Friend” and the lyrics included: People let me tell you about my best friend. And I knew that my mom was my best friend.For more than thirty years since then she’s supported, helped and loved me in more ways that I can remember. She’s the most patient, caring, understanding person I’ve ever met. Her family has always been her number one priority, and since she became a grandmother her love has only grown, and I didn’t think that was possible.She is always there for her family whenever they need her, often at tremendous inconvenience to herself. I can’t tell you how helpful, soothing, and reassuring it is to know that whenever anyone in our family calls on her, she’s there to help. My sisters and I would have had a much tougher time throughout our lives if not for the unconditional love and assistance my mom has always provided. Unlike some moms, she has our back even when she doesn't agree with our choices.I’m an understanding, patient, laid-back person and I get those qualities from my mom. The way both she and my dad modeled kindness, generosity, friendliness and honesty also rubbed off on me. (Unfortunately, they failed at making me humble. No, actually they succeeded at making me self-deprecating.)I’ve always thought that it’d be hard to imagine anyone with a greater life than I’ve had, and my mom is a profoundly important reason why that’s true.Janine Baker is my wife. She’s also made our children the luckiest kids alive. They’ve got a good dad, but they’ve got a mother whose love for them is so powerfully impactful that it will be the single largest thing that will shape them into the sort of people they’ll become.She had her first child before she met me. When a baby girl arrives into this world to a nineteen-year-old mother and a deadbeat dad the odds are probably stacked against her. Luckily for my daughter, her mother’s singular love and devotion more than made up for the unstable circumstances surrounding her birth. My daughter’s seventeen-years-old today and she’s a genuinely good person. She should thank her mother for that.We’ve had three kids since we got married. And each time I’ve seen my wife somehow find more love to shower down upon them. I’ve never seen a person more naturally kind, loving, and patient than my wife during those all-important first few years of a child’s life.
She nursed all of our children, and many times I’d wake up in the middle night, tired and disoriented, only to hear my wife cheerfully talking to a wide-awake nursing baby as if she’d slept twelve hours that night, instead of twelve hours that week. My wife went years—years!—devoting her body to her children for pregnancy and nursing. (Who on earth nurses their babies for two years? My wife does!)But the biological devotion she showed to our children is just a small part of what makes her a great mother. Her warm-hearted, selfless, endless love for our children has helped make them sensitive, caring kids who feel no embarrassment in telling us that they love us, or giving us a kiss when we drop them off for school. Her attention to their emotional and intellectual needs has helped make them smart, well-adjusted, and full of joy.I marvel every single day at what a good mother she is. She taught me so much about what it means to be a good parent, and I’m a good dad in large part because of her. I never had the experience of being a sleep-deprived dad because of her. I was never a nervous first-time dad because of her.And my kids will all turn out to be good people because of her.PREVIOUS POST: Vacations are Better Without Facebook or E-mailIF YOU LIKED THIS POST I BET YOU'LL ALSO LIKE: How to Make Sure Your Kids Aren't Jerks+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Want an e-mail every time I write something new? Type your email address in the box and click the "create subscription" button. I'm not going to send you a bunch of junk, and you can ditch me any time you want.