Every Sunday morning I take my mom to church. We usually go for a drive afterwards and get some lunch. One Sunday Mom and I discussed a disagreement which my wife and I had earlier in the week. She listened intently as I filled her in on the details, but she waited until I was finished to comment. She then bluntly informed me that I was wrong and my wife was right about the subject we had disagreed on. “But you’re my mother,” I challenged her. “You’re supposed to agree with me.”
She didn’t back up an inch as she told me, her oldest son, “I am your mother. I’ll always be your mother. And that’s why I’m telling you that your wife is right.” One thing I know for sure is when my mom digs her heels in on something, she’s usually right. And as the saying goes, “Mother knows best.”
I know a lot of our readers have kids who are in college. I’ve included a wonderful article below about a Virginia Tech football player whose mom continued being a mom to him even after he left for college. Parents of scholarship athletes often treat their children differently when they leave for college because they lose the leverage of controlling the financial purse strings. Threatening to pull financial support – or even just to take away spending money – is an effective tool for parents who are paying their kids’ way to school. I’ve known a few friends who acted on this strategy and it helped their kids get the message and shape up in their academic performance.
But that doesn’t work so well in big-time college sports. Usually the parents are just proud their child has earned a scholarship. The mother of that Tech football player didn’t let that faze her, though. I hope you’ll enjoy the article as much as I did, and come away with a new appreciation for how powerful mothers are in their children’s lives.
Have a great weekend,
Ro