Moms can’t be right about everything

“Someday when you have a daughter, you’ll understand.”

I heard that phrase from my mother 346,876 times growing up.  When I slammed doors after being told that I couldn’t go out for the third night in a row in high school.  When I cried on her shoulder over rumors that were started when I was senior and looked up to see tears in her eyes too.  When she tried to talk sense into me in college because I didn’t understand that the way I was being treated was not acceptable.  She would hug me and say “Someday, honey, when you have a daughter, you’ll understand.” 

I didn’t need to wait.  I didn’t need to have a daughter to know that a mother is fiercely protective of her child.  I didn’t need to have a child to know that when they hurt, the mother hurts.  I didn’t need to become a parent to know that sometimes you do what’s best for your child, not what’s easiest. 

Somewhere between the ”my life is over, I can’t believe you won’t let me go” rants of a teenager and “can I come home for the weekend and heal a broken heart” tears of my early 20′s, I learned what being a mother meant.  And the one thing that she was wrong about was that it would take me having a daughter until I would understand.