I am sure if you asked any mother if she is a good one, her answer would most likely be, “Yes!” I am absolutely sure that I am and was a good mother as I raised my three children. They lived, right? There have been several tragedies concerning young children in the headline news lately and that has me thinking about what kind of mother I really am.
A mother, no matter how watchful, can keep her eyes linked with her child all the time. She believes she is undertaking the charge of her offspring to her very best ability. How many times has your child gotten into something precarious with your eyes on them? As I child, I drank gasoline from a container on our front porch.
My mother was sitting nearby and was unable to get to me before the liquid hit my inquisitive tongue. My child drank germtrol believing it was a soda and I was right there with her. One of our boys opened the door of our car and fell out as I was turning into our driveway. I was sitting next to him but not quick enough to stop him.
Another time one of our boys was riding his little sister on the four- wheeler. I was watching and they turned upside down. The most threatening time that I still relive even though our children are grown up now is the time we left our little girl with her older brother while we worked in our garden. We left about five o’clock in the morning to beat the heat and the brother lay down with his sister so that he would know when she woke up. Well, he did not wake up. She went out the back door looking for us. She visited up and down the street with the neighbors, one of whom owned a Doberman that did not like children. She crossed the street several times back and forth calling on our sleeping neighbors. As she headed toward the busy Highway 35, one of our friends was leaving early for work and saw her as she started across the road. He stopped and got her and carried her back to our back door. After waking our son, he had no idea she had escaped.
The little boy was pulled in the water by an alligator in Florida; his parents saw that and could not stop the attack. A baby was left in the back seat of her mother’s car and forgotten; her mother believed she was not there. I want to say, “This could never happen to my child.” It can and it does every day. No matter how vigilant we are, our children are often faster and cleverer than we expect. I try very hard not to judge when catastrophes happen because I know from heartbreaking experience, we cannot stop all heartbreaks. We are just moms, good ones, but just moms.
This is one of this Mom’s favorite chicken recipes – Swedish Chicken - 6 boneless chicken breasts, 1 jar sliced dried beef, 6 strips bacon, 2 cups sour cream, 2 cans cream of mushroom soup, 2 cups milk, ¼ cup white wine, ( the kind you would drink). Season chicken with salt and pepper. Place a piece of dried beef on each side of the chicken and wrap with a slice of bacon. Place chicken in a 13 x 9 casserole dish and mix mushroom soup, sour cream, milk and wine. Pour over chicken. Cover and bake 325* for about an hour. This is great with creamed potatoes or rice.
