My Mom Was Right!

Moms are so badass, I ‘d say. They raise us, love us, and teach us the rules of the world, and with any luck, we turn out to be great people thanks to their hard work (Thank God! And he deserves all that credit, though, because moms can be <let’s face it> FLAWED). Of late, everything I have been doing feels like a copy paste of what my mother was doing to us (the good and bad included. sigh) and I‘d SWORN in my adoloscence that I’d never be a mother like my mother. I’d be so rad and much much cooler and my kid would be happy he had a pretty awesome mom who was perfect. In reality, the dream is just a bit far away, at this point. After having a child and other adulting responsibilities, I think if I could be half as focussed and dedicated like her, I’d do sooooooooooo much better. My mom is a full time medical practitioner and believe me she had better work-life balance than what I do now. I blame the big city , though. 😛

One of my not-so-great memories of my childhood was about how we had to eat practically the same food every week, in the name of routine and balanced diet. Mondays – Idli, Tuesdays – Upma (Ugghh!) and so on. Lunches were practically the same : Tuesdays and Fridays (Sambar) and a serving of vegetable so big that I was still hiding food under the table at 12 years old and we aren’t even vegetarians. My mother had a very busy work life and we had a cook to get food on our tables and I used to hate her for not cooking for our family. Whenever I hated the food (most days) I used to tell her it was yuck and that she should bring more variety to the table (like pizza *shrug*). All she used to say was that I’ll appreciate what she does for us, one fine day, and TBH that fine day was the day I set up our house. Didn’t expect it to come that early!

Fast forward to now, with the mental and work plates soooo full, cooking had taken a back-burner in 2017. If we have different food groups in all meals we have per day, I call it a win, let alone in just a single meal. On days when the cook doesn’t turn up my schedule goes for a toss, I get panicky as my mind speeds at a million miles per hour and we simply have carbs (dosa & idli podi for breakfast and dinner, curd rice for lunch. Carb coma!) Of course I do know OPOS, and all that jazz, but still I go through this angst. After all this I truly appreciate my mother’s management skills and how little details do make a big difference – like planning for instance. Now I don’t hate my mother for having an ugly but completely functional food chart hung up to remind us what’s cooking and actually sticking to it and making us have healthy food. Her planners and all the writing hanging on the walls annoyed me then, but look at me now. I’m planning like there’s no tomorrow and making up weird combinations for my food chart this year. She was sooo right about many many things (and wrong about few which are yet to be disproven ;)) but hey the next time you think you hear your mother’s words spilling out of your mouth take a moment to appreciate the wisdom that she passed down to you and make good use of that!

This post is a part of a blog train organised by Elina Wadia where 20 Indian moms have come together to write about how their own mothers were right! To read her article on the same topic, click here

Also, make sure to check this interesting article written by a fellow mom blogger, The Sweet Life of Riri