There's No One Here By That Name

My daughter is only 4 years old, yet as of the last week or so, I’ve suddenly become just “Mom”. Being called Mommy is out the window, and it’s driving me crazy. I had kind of been banking on being Mommy my entire life, and while it had occurred to me that I probably would be Mom someday, I imagined it in terms of a faceless teenage girl saying “Mooooom!” with as many “o’s” as humanly possible. I don’t know where Laura picked it up, but she can tell it’s driving me crazy, so she keeps doing it. It makes her seem much too old, and coupled with her new hair cut, I feel like I suddenly flashed forward to the having a 10 year old. As silly as it sounds, it was really bothering me.

The Army Man helped me out a few nights ago when she was asking for this “Mom” person. He simply replied, “There’s no one here by that name”, and that seemed to make it clear to her. Now when she calls me Mom, I just ignore her until she says Mommy. Is that mean? Maybe, but I’m just not ready to be Mom. Interestingly, a little bit ago Laura had a bit of a tantrum, something that's been pretty rare these days (thank heavens!) and as she sat there in her room, screaming and crying, she began calling for Mommy. And Mommy was very happy to go to her, believe me. Maybe we'll be back on track now, until Kindergarten or whenever it is that kids are too cool to have Mommies.