“Momisms”
“Atta girl. Go for it!”
“Shut the door. We don’t live in a barn.”
“I’m going to count to three…”
“You made the mess; you clean it up.”
“Because I said so.”
“If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.”
“Money doesn’t grow on trees.”
“If everyone jumps off a bridge, do you have to do it, too?” ¹
“Momisms” such as these can tumble into our feelings, images, hoots of laughter and resolutions about our own use or non-use of them when we become adults. Mother’s Day draws us to remember many past experiences. Among these, “momisms” can surface especially when siblings join together to recall.
If we are humble enough, we might confess what “momisms” (or “dadisms”) we use today, whether effective or not. For example, when in a situation of delay, irritation, conflict, complication, I often say to myself and to the people involved, “Life happens.” This phrase immediately pulls me out of my own and others’ drama; the incident receives only the energy it warrants. I feel my body relax and my irritability lose its grip. It’s not a tragedy. It might be only a bump in the road. A friend states what I experience as an even more potent comment: “Yes, we have been thrown into an unfortunate situation, but nobody died.” The jolt of her humor and spurt of truth turns me to realize this happening is not as major as I might make it.
Sometimes a phrase based on the Rule of St. Benedict or Scripture grounds me in the faith relationship with God that I am striving to live. Seeing a person as Christ overpowers the resistance or dislike I may have for them (RB 53:1). “I entrust the person or situation to you, God,” is an active giving them to the source of transformation rather than me thinking I am responsible for what I think best.
Mother’s Day can invite us to examine what “momisms” we use and to assess their effectiveness. We can affirm them, delete them, develop new ones. Ours and others’ “momisms” can help us live within a greater spirit of lightheartedness for ourselves and others. We can let go of those that are not effective or are negative in their effects. We can use our “momisms” to steward and direct our energy to responses we choose. In so doing, we nudge the people around us to live more fully what Martin Luther King called “the beloved community.” In the background, perhaps we will hear the “momism” of someone cheering us: “Atta girl. Go for it!”
Mary Reuter, OSB
Photo by Towfiqu Barbhuiya on Pexels.
¹ For more samples of “momisms,” see https://www.imom.com/momisms-hilarious-reasons-you-say-them/
