My mom was the hot cheerleader in highschool. My dad was the quarterback of the team. It was a story as old as time. That was where the beautiful Americana ended though. They didn't fall in love. They didn't get married. There was no happily ever after. Instead, there was me. My mom was just turned 18 when she became pregnant with me and it turned her life upside down. The QB that got her pregnant was also a barely legal 18 but he had college plans and couldn't be bothered with stupid kid stuff...
She never graduated from highschool. She had to get her GED and work as a waitress while she raised me. Her family life was terrible and soon she was living on her own and raising a child.
My mom was a good waitress, and worked at a couple restaurants to make sure she got enough money for us to have a small home and a few things. It was all very modest of course. She didn't allow her petite size to limit how much she could carry on a serving tray and used her youthful energy to its fullest for work. If her friend didn't own a tiny daycare, she would have been in a real difficult spot. Hey, that's what friends are for.
My mom didn't make time to go out. I think she was afraid to. After getting pregnant in highschool, she was afraid of it happening again or at least that was what I assumed. Single mom of two kids is a whole different thing and she wanted no part of that pattern.
Mom would take me to this nice park to play. The playground there was huge and there were always quite a few other kids for me to play with. It was down by the lake so it was a popular place to bring kids. My mom had an issue with irritable bowel syndrome and spent long periods in the bathroom. I always wondered how it affected her restaurant work but she managed it somehow. Sometimes, when I would go for a "hey mom look at me" moment, she was nowhere around. I just played with whatever kids were around and didn't dwell on it.
She took me to that park a couple times a week and I really enjoyed it. The park was only a few blocks from home and walking there was easy so when I was twelve and she asked me if I wanted to go to the park I decided that I was too big to hang out with my mom and and I let her know that I could get there on my own in 3 minutes on my bike. I destroyed our ritual forever. It really wasn't that big a deal, it's not like we held hands or I ever rode piggy back. After that, my mom and I really only spent time around each other when we were away from home and we were at one of my wrestling meets. She often came and sat way in the back. She would watch and leave, not saying a word even though I always won. I hated that.
My mom started going on occasional walks to relax and clear her head. Walking was good for you and exercising can help her IBS. Other than her regular evening or late afternoon walks after work, my mom did nothing else outside of the house. She and I rarely did anything together anymore. I was the guy in her life though always at a diatance. She never had any other that I knew about and she never went out to meet adults. She always kept me at an arms length, never doting on me with hugs or kisses. Eventually, I got a girlfriend, in fact after a while I had a few of them. We weren't real serious or anything.
I always tried so hard to get Mom's attention, approval, recognition, a glimmer of affection that I always took it out on my wrestling opponents and completely destroyed them. I was always the big, jacked kid that everyone was afraid of and I was the wrestling champ of everything. My mom didn't care. No hugs, no high fives, no good luck kiss on the top of my head. She would say, "Nice win, baby." or "Did you have to make that boy cry?" or just some other thing that wasn't followed up by actual affection.
My mom wasn't a touchy feely person. I don't want to make it sound like she wasn't motherly. She was a good mom, she just kept her distance. I didn't know why, that's just how my mom was. She's my mom and I love her though most of the time I wondered if she loved me. I spent so much effort trying to impress my distant mom that I was not good boyfriend material and I stopped seeing girls at school. It was a hard lesson for me to learn and I definitely looked like I had mommy issues. That's because I did.
I know I am painting the picture of a quirky ugly hermit for my mom, but that doesn't fit my mom at all. My mom was 10 years younger than the youngest parents of my friends. My buddies all thought she was hot and tried to tease me about it plenty. Because I was a wrestler, none of my friends teased me too much because they all knew I could back up any threats I made.
My mom was a petite 5' 3" and she was the size of a girl that cheerleaders call flyers. She was just grown up and my mom, but she retained her tight body and still did yoga and some tumbling and stretching. She kept herself good.
I had a really nice mountain bike that I rode everywhere, even after I had gotten my driver's license. I considered it part of my conditioning and thought that driving was a waste of time I should spend doing cardio for wrestling stamina. It was one evening, shortly after my 18th birthday and right at the end of 11th grade. My mom went for one of her walks. I found myself with nothing else to do and so I decided to follow her. I took my bike so that I knew I could beat her back home and make like I had been there the whole time if I needed to.
She headed toward the lake and I watched her get to the end of our sleepy neighborhood block before coasting out to follow her. She continued heading in the same direction so I remained about a block behind her. Mom walked around to the edge of the playground and took out a big billowy scarf and wrapped it around her head before getting to the tree line and entering the woods. She must have to use the bathroom.
I headed to the side of the woods and stashed my bike. Then I ran and circled back to the restroom, staying in the woods in the dimming light of day and watched the bathroom. There was a line of men on the men's side. Five men waiting to use the bathroom. They each used the bathroom for about five minutes and then the line was gone. A minute after the line disappeared, my mom came out of the women's side and started to back track her way home. I scrambled out of the perimeter of the woods, hopped on my bike and got home in a couple minutes and went up to get ready for bed.
I took a quick shower, brushed my teeth and slipped into bed. I heard the screen door shut sharply because of the return spring and knew that my mom had come home. After about a minute she was in my doorway, "Good night, baby. I can tell from the smell that you showered. Did you brush?"
"Ya, mom. Of course I brushed, I'm not gross."
"Of course you're not gross, baby. I would never think that."
"Hey, mom. Are you ok?". I asked her with worry in my voice.
She leaned further into my room and I could see her smile fade to concern and she had a hand on her flat stomach as she asked, "Why is there this concern for me, baby. You know I am a rock."
"Ya, I know. It's just you don't have anyone and sometimes I wonder if you get lonely, mom."