Queen Mother Sunshine

One day when my kids were younger I had reached the limit of hearing my favorite word, mom.  I announced to my kids that I had changed my name. I got their attention.  They stopped with their barrage of, "Mom, can I’s" and "Mom, he’s"… and "MO-OM’s." Once they realized I was serious they asked me to tell them my new name.  I simply said no, that my new name was a secret.

Their reaction was completely unexpected. My youngest, who was 6 at the time, FREAKED OUT!  She started crying and said could not imagine what she would do if she could not get my attention.  My oldest, who was 11, looked at me suddenly realizing I was serious and looked a little worried. My middle child, who was 7, actually looked like he was interested in what I was saying. They all started asking, well really demanding, that I tell them my new name.

When you want to get your kids to just stop talking for a minute and give your brain a chance to process all their questions, problems, and news you’d better have a plan.  I had no plan so I turned it all in to a game, I told them they had to guess my new name.  Truthfully, I don’t remember any of their guesses but I do remember that they were pretty funny and for the rest of the car ride home we were laughing and talking.  The complaining and bickering had ended and we were just having fun.

I love the word Mom.  I always wanted to be a mom.  I always dreamed of having children and spending time with them, watching them grow and sharing life with them.  But just like everything in life, including chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, when you get too much of anything it can just be too much! And at that moment in time I had reached my limit.

When we finally pulled up in the driveway and the kids had not guessed my name, and I do think someone had actually guessed Rumpelstiltskin, I knew I could not get out of the car without giving them a name.  I thought about it and on the spot I told them my new name was, “Queen Mother Sunshine”. 

For the rest of the day the kids remembered that I would not answer to mom and they would say, “Oh, Queen Mother Sunshine”, every time they wanted something. 

Looking back this is one of my favorite moments with my kids.  And, even though I did not mean to do so at the time, I think I taught them something. I don’t know if they learned to have fun, remembered to be more respectful or to just look at things differently but I do know that every now and then when one of them recognizes that they have pushed me to the limit they stop, smile, look at me and simply, sweetly say, “Oh, Queen Mother Sunshine.”  
Now if one of them would just buy me a tiara.
Magda