Where did Mommy go?

Sometime this summer the kids decided not to call me "mommy" anymore. Now they call me "mom."

For all the difficulty I had getting used to "mommy" a few years ago, "mom" is even worse. The role is the same, but the tone is all different. When your baby starts calling you "mommy", it is sweet and such a feat. All those random syllables have suddenly coalesced into a word--a real recognizable English word. What an amazing word! Full of wonder and awe. Mommies can do anything. They can reach the high shelf and make the swing go higher than the birds.

Mommies know everything, but they also have to do everything. Babies never doubt that Mommy will can and will care of everything. The word brims with love and dependence.

"Mom" is such a different feeling--full of guilt and failings and accusations. While Mommies are perfect, Moms can have faults, some of which seem to open like chasms overnight. Suddenly, mom is embarrassing with the way that she dresses in her out-of-style jeans. She insists on using words, like "cool" and "awesome", that haven't been current since last month, and she greets her friends in the middle of the grocery store when her child is not dressed for public. Hair styles are no longer cool. The car is not good enough. Moms just don't get what all the kids are doing and that things are like they used to be.

The worst part of the word is how it can be drawn out almost into three syllables, "M-o--om" which denotes particular disgust with Mom's lack of understanding of how toast should be buttered or clothes should be folded. My kids are only 3 and 4, but the already have this down. Just in time for the youngest to learn "Mama."