Reflections on Motherhood: “Mom”

Elias has started shortening names of his loved ones. I don’t know where it came from. Perhaps he noticed that sometimes we call him “Eli” instead of Elias and picked it up that way. He calls Daddy “Dad” and Nana “Nan” and Baba “Bob”…..and he calls me “Mom.”

Now we’re not talking every single time here. It’s not like he completely cut the word “Mommy” from his vocabulary. I still get called Mommy quite often. But I have to say….I do not like being called Mom.

The first time he called me ‘Mom’ I said to him, “I’m Mommy.” But it did not good. I’ve never actually discouraged it because it’s not like he’s calling me by my first name or anything. But I just don’t like it.

Mom is a name that big kids call their Moms. Little kids say Mommy. Big kids say Mom. I don’t want to be Mom yet.

A little piece of my heart shrivels up and dies every time I hear him call me ‘Mom.’ I mean….I guess that is a bit of an exaggeration. Maybe I’m being overly dramatic here. But also maybe I’m just not ready for this change. I want my little boy to stay little just a bit longer.

So for now, I try to embrace it when he calls me Mom as a sign of his growth and all of the new and exciting opportunities which will come up for him in the next few years and beyond. But boy do I treasure it every time he calls me Mommy. I never know when it will be the last time.

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