How Are You Like Your Mother?

I’ve written half a dozen blogs about my mom, and half a dozen more featuring my mom. I’m not sure the world needs another blog about my mom, but apparently I do, because here we are.

Last week I posed a question to family and a few friends – ‘How are you like your mother?’ It’s a challenging question for people. Most said, “I’d have to think about it,” and many who gave an immediate response, did so by sharing a difference, rather than a similarity.

It is a question that often triggers deeper self-reflection, but sometimes the answer is quick and simple. My son responded promptly. “We like music, and reading, and I randomly break into song when someone says something that is a song lyric.” Yep. Accurate.

My brother had a one word answer to the question. “Idealist.” I would agree that they both share idealistic views, but during our weekly sibling call, we also talked about how our mom was pragmatic. This prompted me to google, “Can an idealist and a realist coexist?” and I feel like the AI Overview fit Mom to a T.

Yes, an idealist and a realist can absolutely coexist, and often form highly effective partnerships.  While the idealist focuses on how things should be and the realist on how things are, they balance each other; the idealist provides vision and passion, while the realist provides the practical strategy needed to reach goals.

Mom could have certainly provided today’s politicians some strategies needed to reach some practical goals.

Parental relationships are some of the most complicated. For most, parents are our first role models. That can be good and bad. We can be close with our parents or estranged from our parents and everything in between. Our parents show us what we want to be and what we never want to be.

Before I started blogging, I practiced my writing by using prompts. I recently found these notes.