….and the world spins madly on.

Today began with a lovely brunch in Finch with friends, and then a trip to the supermarket, cycling along in the intermittent sun.

Wasn’t really up for much more beyond that, late night last night, at a Drag Party at Keith & Ronan’s glitter-ball bedecked apartment.

Came home and decided that tea and a bubblegum movie were the order of the day.

“Because I said so” was sitting forlorn and unloved for a few months now, time to try that one I thought, looks like it wont take any mental processing, perfect for today.

With the tagline of

“She’s just your normal, overprotective, overbearing, over-the-top mother.”

perhaps this was a movie for last Sunday, but nevertheless I stuck with it. I love Diane Keaton and have a small crush on Piper Perabo which explains why I have this movie in the first place. Have to say “stuck with it” is really all one could do, it wasn’t the greatest movie ever made, it was annoying and cliched in many parts, but still something about the mother character played by Diane Keaton kept me involved.

The story struck a chord with me, a woman who has devoted her life to raising 3 daughters with their father out of the picture, just wants the best for them and determined to ensure they didn’t make the mistakes she felt she did. My mom all but raised us on her own, and while she’s nowhere near as overprotective or involved in our lives as Ms Keaton’s character was in her daughters, the sentiment remains. She had to do everything for us and built her life around us, its something I am very aware of, and when I left for college I was more upset for her, than excited for me.

It is so hard, when you are there on your own, not to make your kids the center of the world and inevitably they grow up and leave you, as they are supposed to do, but I can imagine it is hard to let them make their own mistakes.

This quote made me laugh, while crying, and it resonated with me, even as I thought of my nephew, whose raising I have been really involved in..

I want you girls to understand something about motherhood, ok?
It is the most impossible love, you tell me, when it ends, when it stops?
All I know is, its absolutely fine for me to teach you how to walk and talk, and then you grow up and you head off in the wrong direction toward a cliff, and I’m supposed to stand there and wave and say good-luck?

You watch this small person grow, and it depends on you for everything, its hard to give that up. Its hard to look at him now and not see the tiny thing on a hospital bed the morning we brought him home. Even though he’s six and nearly as tall as me, and asking all manner of bizzare questions, its all I can do not to think of the little bundle I would hold in my arms all afternoon as he slept.

My mum was trying to have a second child (me) for 6 years, I cant imagine how bitter sweet it is to watch that person you tried so hard to create, grow up and away from you. In truth, as anyone who knows me will tell you, I’m never very far away from her, well emotionally anyway. And while other people may be delighted to get as far from their parents as soon as possible, I’m happy that she is the first person I think of telling when something happens.

I wouldn’t be the person I am today without her, and I’m pretty sure there is more than 50% of her in who I am, which is great as she is amazing and because of that I love who I have become.

We don’t always agree, and I’m sure I have made many decisions in my life she wished I hadn’t, but she allowed me to make them and I knew that if I needed her she would be there. Which is the best feeling in the world and gave me the confidence, in a way, to make those mistakes and learn from them.  So she’s not a “helicopter mom” as Ms Keaton’s character, but her love and support of us is unquestionable.

So there you go, an outpouring of motherly love, a week late, but then again who says you have to wait until Mothers Day to write about how great your mother is?

I leave you with the only other good thing about the movie, the soundtrack, and in particular this song by The Weepies