The short straw

You know how there's the classic picture of a dad sitting on a porch cleaning his shotgun coincidentally as his daughter's date shows up to pick her up? And you know that cute story of a guy trembling in his boots because he's about to meet a girl's dad and he might possibly rip the boy to shreds? And you know how there are a thousand songs about how dads loved their daughters first and no one is ever good enough for a man's baby girl and on and on and on?

And you know how everyone just universally smiles at this beautiful display of patriarchal protection and love?

How many times have you heard people sigh and grin at the sweet thought of a mother shoving recipes down the throats of her son's girlfriends? Or when she tells them how her son likes his socks folded? Or when she insists no one can care for her son when he's sick the way she can?

You've probably never smiled at the thought. Like me, you've probably cringed at it. I HAD those mothers-of-boyfriends. I've stubbornly fought back on how to fold clothes and make banana pudding and chicken casserole and just how to precisely fold a cold rag for a feverish forehead. I've rolled my eyes as I was told all of the little oddities about my boyfriends, thinking 'thanks, but no thanks. You're nuts'. never once did I think it was cute how over protective the mothers were.

And now I get it!

William's future wife very well may be greeted with a handbook. He's a particular creature with very definite likes and dislikes and he's strong willed and opinionated and needs his space sometimes and...and his future wife needs to know these things. I would mean it in the most loving of ways! Really I'd be helping her. Who will ever have better advice or guidance on how best to love my son than me???

But it will never be viewed that way. I'll just be that crazy mom. The one talked about over coffee. The one the girls pretends to like as her friends encourage her behind the scenes. The one William has to defend because despite my craziness he will love me more than his girlfriends will want him to. That'll be me. I already know.

Other than the one large instance of mothers having the joy of carrying our babies for 9 months, do dads EVER draw the short straw again? Cause once again, dads get to be cute and loving while doing the exact same thing that's makes mothers crazy and loathed.

But I promise I'll know better than William's silly little wife. You mark my words.


- manda