Devoted Mother

The bird is doing fine. I walked past her tree this afternoon, sans camera, and she just stared at me. I didn't make any sudden moves, so all was well. I thought you could live without a photo today. :) Once again, I am just so blown away by the mothers of my students. Sometimes I find out the things they do for their children and I can't comprehend it all. Yes, some of the stuff is fairly typical, but still, do you know how hard it is to be just typical? A boy in my class has given me quite a few gifts, as prompted by his parents. His parents are not made of money and yet, his dad recently traveled outside of the country and I was given a special souvenir. Parents donate books, they send fresh eggs and zucchini, and don't even get me started on the supplies: dry erase markers, hand sanitizer, boxes of tissues and baggies, snacks for the emergency kit. And on and on. These mothers volunteer and tutor, they regularly throw parties for a group of thirty-four, and they make sure their kid looks like an American Hero for The Night at the Museum. I have a girl in my class who was diagnosed with diabetes in first grade. Her mother tests her blood every two hours all through the night, every night. The girl sleeps through it. Most mothers get to stop waking up every two hours after their youngest starts growing and makes it longer between feedings, but this mother is still chugging away, saving her daughter's life one test strip at a time. Just today I learned of a boy in my class whose mother is teaching him manners in an interesting way. He was pretty matter-of-fact about it: "My mom wants us to be decent human beings when we start dating, so she takes us to lunch sometimes and has us practice opening the doors for her and stuff like that." I really don't know when this particular mother sleeps. On top of everything else, she works graveyards. Moms show up to cheer their kids on for the mile run. They say amazing things like, "Oh, sure, I can whip up a class quilt tonight, in all my spare time." They hire "hitting specialists" so the kid can excel in baseball. They braid hair into hearts on Valentine's Day. They check their children's grades online. They read to their children. They have flipped flash card after flash card after flash card until "six times eight is forty-eight" happens to be the one they really hate. That lesson on immigration...I just hope it was cool enough.