Benefit of Having Been a Mother

I have had a couple missed calls from my mom this week.  She will call my cell phone when I am at work and I can hear in the voice mail that she is really annoyed that I am not answering.  So she called Saturday, even though our set time for me to call is Sunday afternoon.  I am realizing that I need to treat this like I did when my children were young.  When the opportunity presents itself, I need to go ahead and take the time to talk with her.

 I am so thankful my boss is understanding.  Her mother is further down the process than mine. Recently, she had to mover her mother from assisted living to a skilled nursing facility.  So I asked permission from my boss to talk with my mom once in a while when she calls.  My boss knows I'm a workaholic, so she told me to go ahead and talk with my mom.

I am so bad about developing routines to get everything done, work, housework, cooking, etc.  That when something threatens to upset my routine, I have a hard time adjusting.  I have to remind myself that I will look back and wish for the days I could let the house get dusty, spending the time instead to talk with my mom.

I ran into the daughter of a resident we had years ago at the assisted living.  The resident had dementia and passed several years ago.  The daughter said the same thing.  She would give anything to be able to talk with her mom again.  So when I get calls in the middle of the work day, I have to take a deep breath and be thankful that I am still able to have a conversation with her.