Erma Bombeck on Motherhood

Managing to be both a truth teller, humorist and philosopher Erma Bombeck always made me smile. Have you read her book, “Motherhood the Second Oldest Profession“?

She has an amazing repertoire of quotes about mothering. Here are a few:

“Someday, when my children are old enough to understand the logic that motivates a mother, I’ll tell them: I loved you enough to bug you about where you were going, with whom and what time you would get home. … I loved you enough to be silent and let you discover your friend was a creep. I loved you enough to make you return a Milky Way with a bite out of it to a drugstore and confess, ‘I stole this.’ … But most of all I loved you enough to say no when you hated me for it. That was the hardest part of all.”

“Mother’s words of wisdom: Answer me! Don’t talk with food in your mouth!”

“The art of never making a mistake is crucial to motherhood. To be effective and to gain the respect she needs to function, a mother must have her children believe she has never engaged in sex, never made a bad decision, never caused her own mother a moment’s anxiety, and was never a child.”

 

 

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