A Man’s Mom

May 7, 2013 at 9:15 am · Filed under stories and tagged: family, Holidays, Home, Mother, Mother's Day, Parenting, Teach For America

< by Brennan >

My mom has raised four boys for the last 40 years. 40 years of sweaty sports gear, massive amounts of food — good luck with leftovers — wrestling fights, body odor, and budding facial hair. 40 years of, well, boys being boys. In a way, she has and will never stop taking care of us.

I think one of my favorite things that she has developed, over this ridiculous journey of raising four rambunctious lads, has been her ability to take our jokes and snark in stride. She has learned to give as good as she gets.

I have a tradition with my mom that, for all intents and purposes, she doesn’t quite know about. I can write this story safely because, to date, she hasn’t figured out putting a DVD on, let alone operating the Internet, as she would say. The tradition is to April Fool her every year with a phone call.

It started when I was in college and had been accepted to Teach For America. I called her to let her know that I had been kicked out already because they had found out, through a background check, about an underage alcohol charge I had gotten a couple years prior. I don’t skew toward sad, terrible news every year; sometimes it’s something fun (this year: she had won a free computer through a raffle I entered on her behalf, the year before I had received a $10,000 tax refund).

But every year, she takes the bait. And, really, I am not sure at this point if she is really being fooled or has found the enjoyment of playing along with me every year. But I think that’s one of the things I love the most about my mom; she does, and has taught us all to, take it in stride. Be calm, collected, and take it all with a grain of salt.

So, this Mother’s Day, here’s to you Chippy Lowery. Thank you for being my number one cheerleader, a devoted guide, and always laughing when I let you know you’ve been had again.

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