Mother to one, mother to all...

Did you ever notice... (yikes, I sound like ANDY ROONEY!)

Let me start again:

I've discovered that in my mothering of two children, I have suddenly become a mother to the world.

Yes, your DNA changes when you have children. Your eyesight becomes sharper (you can see behind you, through walls and under tables and know immediately what your children are doing...)

Like the member of a S.W.A.T. team, your senses become more accute and aware. When your child moves from your side in a store or on a beach, you are immediately aware of this and perform a military-style sweep of the area until your child is located.

When a child coughs in the middle of the night, you are instantly awake and rushing to his side. When they are about to vomit, you get there in DOUBLE TIME.

But these reactions are not limited to my own children.

If I am out shopping, I will suddenly cringe when I hear a particularly nasty cough coming out of the mouth of someone else's child. Having heard too many coughs come out of my asthmatic son's mouth, I can't help but empathize.

At a Pampered Chef show this past weekend, not only did I hear that same cough, but I heard that familiar hmmmmmmmm of the nebulizer we've used for so many years. Since we've mostly retired our nebulizer, it was somewhat nostalgic (and somewhat disturbing) to hear that again.

When a child cries in honest pain or suffering, my heart breaks. When I see a child being mean to another child (not mine) I still want to admonish them to be kind to each other.

The only exception to this rule is when I am out in public and hear a child having a screaming meltdown. At that point, I just smile sympathetically at the mother and wander away, happy that this is someone else's nightmare for a change.

The other day, while my children were at school, I went to a sub shop to pick up a sandwich for lunch. There were several young men in line ahead of me, laborers by the look of them, probably in their early twenties. One was munching on a bag of potato chips, waiting to place his order. He dropped a chip on the floor, picked it up, looked around for a trash can (there was none) looked around again and at this point I blurted out "DON'T EAT THAT!" He smiled sheepishly and said "I was just thinking about that, since I couldn't find a garbage can". Then his friends started in on him:

"I'll give you a dollar to eat that! C'mon, a dollar man! Do it! Do it! Do it!

And of course, the guy popped the chip into his mouth and ate it. He smiled at me and said "Hey, a dollar's a dollar."

Mother to the World.