Lucy Reflects

A Mother’s Day feature by Whitney’s mom, Cinda Baumunk

Last weekend, my youngest son hollered for me to come upstairs to see “the best Mother’s Day gift ever.” I peeked inside the bathroom and there it was, in all its glory. A brand-new, shiny white, high- efficiency, dual-flush toilet.

“Wow!” I said. “But there is nothing wrong with the one I have. It just needs new guts. When you flush it, you just jiggle the handle, and listen to make sure the water shuts off and then it's ready for the next time.”

“Mom, you’ve been jiggling the handle for the last four years. You needed a new toilet,” he replied.

I'm the mother of three adult children. I believe they had a great childhood. They played jailbreak, baseball, rode go carts, picked up night crawlers, swam in the creek, and enjoyed lots of other childhood activities. Boy, could Whitney sneak up on those night crawlers.

They were surrounded by great friends. Some from the neighborhood, some family and others from school. Their friends had great moms. The kind of mothers that had some of the same values as I did. We taught our children to do the right thing. They knew right from wrong. Our children knew how important education was if they wanted to achieve their goals. The other moms were awesome and played an important part of my children's lives. We had softball, baseball and wrestling matches that we juggled to make sure everyone got to where they needed to be. The kids had their disagreements, fights and tussles. Oh, there were some doozies. Wow!

I got phone calls from school that someone had misbehaved or someone was late for school. In later years, one of them hadn't even gone to school that day. Yikes! I listened to a lot of stories, excuses and reasons why something or someone was right or wrong – a “he said, she said” sort of thing.

I’ve actually been “jiggling the handle” for over 30 years. As a mother, I tried to get rid of the crap that doesn’t matter, listen to their reasoning or excuses, give my opinion (jiggle the handle) and then listen to make sure everything is back to normal until the next time. Being a mom is the most rewarding job ever. My children are adults, but they still need me and I need them. That is the best Mother’s Day gift ever. I love you Darin, Curt and Whitney. Now for the fun part. Being a grandma.

We’d love to hear from our readers, share your memories in the comments below. Tell us about how you “jiggled the handle” through life. Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!