When The Momma talks about my little girl days, she always says that I was her little friend, her companion, her best buddy. I remember the days when we’d go grocery shopping & my saddle shoes would swing under the seat while I ate a Happy Meal after preschool. She says that when her momma was still alive, the three of us spent every afternoon together – I don’t remember those days well, but I do miss my grandmother & I do think that it was the start of the friendship I share with my mother today.
I’ve heard arguments for & against a child being a mother’s best friend & I do believe that until adulthood, the child should not be the BFF of the mother. In my life, that role is specifically held for someone who a) enjoys coffee b) has read 50 Shades of Grey or something similar & c) has seen me piss-ass drunk.
My child has fills none of those requirements, thank God.
But I know what my mother means when she says I was her best little buddy because Harrison is my best little buddy.
The afternoons when we’re together are my favorites. When we’re driving to the park & the windows are down & he’s chatting up a storm about the trucks we see, or when I teach him the birdie song in the car while we wait for his daddy, or when we’re playing parking garage & I put a car in diagonal & tell him that it’s 5pm on Valentine’s Day & there’s always going to be that prick that’s in too big of a hurry to stay between several feet of lines. I head to the grocery store & I ask Harry if he wants to go with me because truly, I love his company when I’m walking the aisles. Or how I don’t mind going to birthday parties with him or taking him to the park or going for a quick treat of frozen yogurt because as long as he’s not having an asshole toddler day, it’s almost guaranteed to be a good time between us.
This weekend, I took Harrison to a classmate’s birthday party & there was this huge tube slide at the top of a mini-mountain & Harry so desperately wanted to go on it. So I hitched up my skinny jeans & grabbed a burlap sack. Moments later with him on my lap & the ripples in the tube threatening my bladder, we zoomed down the dark tunnel & I’m not sure which of us laughed harder.
He makes the best parts of me come out & I hope I do the same for him & I think that’s just what friends do.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
This. It’s the best. I took Abby grocery shopping with me yesterday, because why not. And we giggled the whole way through, making my life that much more enriched.
What a wonderful memory for you two!!! Loved hearing about it!
I totally get what your mom is saying too. I spent years in high school going to gospel concerts with my mom and grandmother. Now, myself, my daughter, and my mom do darn near everything together on the weekends. So much in fact that my daughter does two things (1) told me “mommy, mommies shouldn’t go places without their little girls.” (I went to a pampered chef party alone.) and (2) always asks “are we going to pick up maw-maw” on our way to town. I’m blessed that my mom lives 10 miles from me. I pass her house twice a day. My mom and I are darn close to BFFs. I tell her A LOT but not the fifty shades of grey kinds of things. I hope my little girl remembers the three of us always being together and I hope that when my mom is gone, I can be as close with my daughter as I am my mom. Even as close as my mom and I are, I am lucky to have several girlfriends who I can tell all.
What a lovely memory for the two of you! & I LOVE this! Yes, I do love being with my daughter and we have fun, but I don’t want to fall into the “friends” trap. I adore how you phrased it “best little buddy”…that encapsulates it perfectly. I want to be friendly with my daughter, but not BFFs. When she is old enough, I hope that we can be best friends, but right now, I’m the mom, she’s the daughter and we can be buddies!
I love having adventures like that with my children
Oh yes. I tell her all the time, “you’re my best little friend” and she tells me back “you’re my best grown up friend mama”
My daughter Isabella is totally my little buddy. I love hanging out with her, she cracks my shit up. Although I’m only her second best friend…her first best friend is her stupid goldfish.
I LOVE taking my guys places with me, when its just one of them. Taking them both is a total nightmare unless its somewhere they are guaranteed to be able to run around. My mom was never my best friend growing up, in fact most of my teenage years we didnt get along. Now though, I call her for everything and couldnt imagine my life without her. Im so thankful that she raised me the way she did, and saved the BFF aspect until I was older with my own family.
“… or when we’re playing parking garage & I put a car in diagonal & tell him that it’s 5pm on Valentine’s Day & there’s always going to be that prick that’s in too big of a hurry to stay between several feet of lines.”
HAHAHAHAHA!
this is why we should be IRL friends, because in the midst of such a sweet post, you pull that out of your back pocket & i pee a little.
i love your relationship with harry, it really makes me look forward to the motherhood i’ll experience in the future (:
Such a sweet post. I think I’m friends with my mom now especially since I had kids.
I always want my sons to feel like they can come to me about anything. I want to have an open door policy in our family no matter what it is. I feel like I can be supportive without calling it best friends.
And yes, they do bring out the best in us.
This is probably your best post this year, <3 every part of it.
Also….that's what she said….to the 1st part of the last line. ALWAYS have my mind in the gutter over here.
This is why we are friends. Gutter minds are always alike.
What a great post. Well said!