Because That's What Mothers Do

This morning the second little traveler woke up a little earlier. An opportunistic beagle had removed her quilt, it was now laying cozily on the floor while she shivered on top of her quilt-less bed. In the morning brume she looked out of the window expecting to see the usual sight of rooftops through a dessert haze, but instead sighted five parachuters gliding through the sky. Within half a second she was at our door. She knew her father would be awake because "no matter how early you get up Mum, Dad always wins"

"Look! Look out the window!"

I watched for a moment while they collectively oohed and ahhed over the view, this was something completely out of the ordinary. And then the mother panic set in, what if the others missed it?

The third little traveller has the propensity to wake in fright so I ran my fingers through his hair while gently rubbing his arm "hey gorgeous, you don't want to miss this, have a look out the window".

I bounded into the fourth travelers room, and said "Quick! Quick, you'll be really disappointed if you don't open your eyes and look out of the window now! Annie and Fred are in our room, it's amazing."

He ran straight in the opposite direction "Izzie, Izzie, there's chuters in the air"

She raised one arm from the bed and gave the thumbs up sign.

"Izzie Izzie - Quick! Look!"

Nothing.

I stepped in "Lizzie, have a quick look, it's really quite something - you can get straight back into bed"

One leg unfolded itself out of the bed and a foot hit the floor, another joined it, and for a brief moment she stood by our side with squinted eyes and ruffled hair. Without an ounce of excitement she gave us one word.

"Cool"

And then she was gone. A guest appearance, a walk-on in a sitcom. Hey, wasn't that...?

I wandered back into our room to see G and the second traveller still looking out of the window.

As we drove to school later that morning Lizzie asked why I had woke her.

"Because I'm your Mother, and the very first thing I thought of when I saw those parachutes was 'I better quickly wake the others, they'll be upset if they don't see this' because that's how mothers think"

She smiled.

The first rule of motherhood is that you will never get it completely right. Don't wake them and a pitiful face will look up into your eyes and plead "Why didn't you wake me?". Wake them and you'll be scolded "Why did you wake me up so early?"

Why do I care? Why does it matter?

Because that's what Mothers do.