Ringside Report Wishes Mother’s Around The World A Happy Mother’s Day!

By Ron Signore

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day. It is another unprecedented year, though the trend is far more positive than we saw last year. I am fortunate enough to still have my mother and one grandmother still alive. And further fortunate enough to have the mother of my children be my best friend.

This Mother’s Day is allowing for more people to start becoming a little looser on the requirements of COVID protocols compared to last year. I went almost the whole year without seeing my grandmother, maybe longer, which is very unique for me even to this day. We did see my mom a couple of times and it was very stringently based on COVID protocols. Tomorrow, they can all be together if they so choose to be. We will be celebrating as a family upon our next visit, but we are not longer utterly paralyzed by the crippling effects of the pandemic.

My grandmother is one of the sweetest people I know. Growing up in a very tight nit family, I spent many days at my grandparents. We had many sleep overs; we did many events together. This is a woman who I have always been blessed to have always been around. I was the number 1 grandchild, and for at least 4 years, I was the only grandchild. During those years, she always wanted to keep me doing productive, yet fun things. She never sat me in front of the TV, in fact, she used to do everything she could to stop me from sitting in front of the TV. She would read funny kids books to me, play kid’s games like UNO or Rack-o. She spent time with me, and I always felt I had that undivided attention, that unconditional love. I look back now and realized how blessed I was to have that. The type of spoiled I feel proud of.

That is a good basis for my understanding of the relationship I have with my own mother. My mother was always the disciplinarian, and sometimes, I would feel like she was too much so. I never got into trouble as a kid, I mean not real trouble. Of course, there were the couple of small calls home from the teachers to explain that I was getting an A in being a smart-ass, but for the most part, her instilment of fear of being in trouble into me kept me on the straight and narrow on my own accord. Our family is middle class. Both my parents have always worked. For a while when we moved to Wheaton, she would work two jobs, one as a cashier at Dominick’s (grocery store in Chicagoland back in the day) and the other in the same career line she is now in hospital administration. She always made me work for everything, yet always made sure I had everything from an opportunity perspective. If I needed sports gear or rides to practice, I never missed out on things like that. I never had to sacrifice my opportunities for our income as a family, but if it was something clearly defined as a want like the cool kind of jeans or a video game, you best bet she made me earn it by working for it. We are two very stubborn people at times, and we clashed over things that most I think about looking back now would make me the most ungrateful jerk in the world. It could not have been easy parenting me, someone so independent and focused on my own ways and my brother who is almost the complete opposite of me in every way. She was hard on me for a reason, and it is apparent at this very moment in life: life is hard. Raising kids is hard. There is a lot of sacrifice and lines that have to be drawn to make sure of your kid’s survival when they are on their own. Being able to see that now just makes me pray I can be that successful of a parent to my kids. I had great role models in parents, and she deserves every minute of every Mother’s Day, and every day, to be happy and proud. The funny catch is you can see the transition of how she parented me to becoming a grandmother. The likeness to her mother (my grandmother described above) is uncanny. She adores my children and I think she is relieved she gets to be a fun grandmother. My children miss seeing her every day, but they luckily don’t feel that far apart.

My wife has an interesting life. I am the sole provider for the family, yet, she has the hardest job of anyone I know. She raises our 3 beautiful children. Like my mother, she is more of the disciplinarian. She reminds me of my mother in how she interacts with my oldest daughter and how she acts with our middle child. Very similar. My wife is 100 pounds soak and wet. All three of my children are a great fraction of her size, my youngest being almost half her size at 18 months old and growing. The lack of sleep and the selfishness she takes from me on my demands to rest after working every day are unnecessary and unwarranted. I look back at the time she spends and divides between all three children without a break or loss of care is absolutely amazing. She got up for every feeding, she changed almost every dirty diaper and she has been by far the most active parent between the two of us. She takes (when possible due to COVID) the kids to the library, the zoo, manages their activities and yet, she does not complain, despite her obvious stress levels. She does not ask for anything. She is the least selfish person I know, and I clearly do not deserve to be so lucky as to have someone like her in my life, let alone be blessed enough for her to be the mother of my children.

Tomorrow, I want all of you to take a minute and think about your mothers. If you cannot find the love and joy I was able to find in the blessings I have had, I feel bad. I feel like I am bragging, and maybe I am. But, if you find differing feelings based on your thinking of your mothers, think about how you can provide these memories for your kids. I am thankful for my blessings, and I hope you all are too. Have a great Mother’s Day all!

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