“There is a method to my madness,” she would say. As a child, Saturday morning was worth the wait. We would get out of bed, run down those stairs, fill a bowl with cereal and milk and plant ourselves in front of our TV. CARTOONS!!! There were 3 channels back then and our remote control were our two legs, getting up to turn the dial. We had an antenna that had two “arms” that we could rotate around when the picture got snowy. Someone said that if we wrapped the arms with foil it would be even better.

At Christmas time the cartoons were great, but the commercials were the BEST! That’s how we saw the new toys and decided what we simply could not live without. Well, that, and the Sears Christmas catalog. We’d circle the things we’d chosen for our lists.  Mom would be working around the house, letting us just soak up being a kid on a Saturday morning. But when the roadrunner was over, so was her leniency.  We’d put our bowls in the sink and learn what had to get done. I remember just hating that part of Saturday. My friends went from cartoons to playing for the rest of the day. We, on the other hand, learned about washing woodwork, cleaning bathrooms, doing dishes, and picking up our rooms. I thought that was the most UNFAIR my mother ever got. I mean…come ON!!! It’s Saturday. That day is supposed to be Sacred!!! I mean, CARTOONS!!!

At Thanksgiving dinners, at my grandma’s house, I’d watched my grandma, mom and aunts create a spectacular dinner for us and how I’d enjoyed every delicious mouth full. Imagine my surprise, as I excused myself from the dinner table, turned toward the living room, when I heard my mother ask me to please come and help them to clear the table. And THEN to start doing the dishes?!!? So, let me get this right!!! While some folks retired from the dinner table to the living room to watch football, I was part of the cleanup crew. MAN!!! I thought that was so unfair.

As time has a way of doing, it came and went and I’d left my childhood in a giftwrapped box. I can open it anytime I want to sort through all of the memories I left in there. I had children of my own now. Thanks to my mom, I could cook and I could clean and I worked hard in order to respect and keep the things that I needed.  I have always known how to take care of myself.

I’ve worked hard my entire life and that is just the way that I was wired. My sisters are the same way. There is just no way that I can sit and watch someone clear the dinner table or clean the kitchen without lending a hand. I thank my mother for that.  I can’t watch someone struggle with a heavy load without grabbing an end. I thank my mother for that. I won’t just watch when I can help. My God, I want to thank my mother for this.

Looking back, the looks of horror when I told my kids, on Saturday mornings, to turn off the TV, it’s was time to pick up their rooms…still makes me laugh. I had a method to my madness. It was time for grownup training.