By Lisa S. Tarno

This year I get to spend time with two of my three sons, my new daughter in law and even my own mother. I feel blessed. Being a mom has been the best gift God has given me next to my husband. It didn’t come as easy to us as others, but finally we ended up with three boys. The journey was difficult at first while we had to wait and others were easily getting pregnant and starting their families. It was a first of many more waiting moments I had to experience but the end result of my three sons was worth the wait. 

As I look back, I thoroughly loved being their mama, mommy and mom. I treasured the baby and toddler moments to pre-school and school years all the way up to being a room mom, team mom as well as spectator mom at their events. My sons are all now adults and I love them even more. They make me laugh with their varied senses of humor. They are so unique from each other. Three boys that look nothing alike…it’s quite fascinating how they genetically represent the both of us and our families but unto to each other, they are individuals with their own looks.

I like this season of building friendships with my adult sons. In our parenting classes long ago, we learned the different phases of parenting starting with discipline, training, coaching and ending up with friendship. It was important to go in that order. It seems like a lot of parents want to flip the order and start with friendship but what you end up is “credit card parenting…you pay later with a lot of interest” (Ezzo, Growing Kids God’s Way). We had to live in the tension of not being liked at times because we were the parents and they were the kids. We knew that friendship was our end goal, but it was important to not compromise along the way and give in just to be liked by our kids. 

This season is what we have strived for. We can still coach them along with life and when they become parents but it is wonderful to be on the other side of disciplining and training. This Mother’s Day is a big “Whew!” I am taking it all in and savoring it this weekend. I am truly thankful and blessed.