I Cut the Umbilical Cord.

Yes, I cut the umbilical cord with my mom.

Well, as I’ve gotten older the umbilical cord has been weakened and possibly has a few tears already.

My mom is a very caring person who puts her baby boy as priority number one. I don’t know if I’ll ever be this type of parent, but my goodness can she just let me be, dammit!

A few days ago construction started on a bridge. Traffic is still able to go under the bridge but at night is when the heavy machinery start. And you can’t make cement without water, so naturally a few cars catch the dirty, muddy water on their windshields and paint jobs. I park my car and notice that I was the lucky one to have my car blessed with a few drops of the nasty water. My hood, roof, and windshield were tainted with it.

My mom sees my car a few days later. She immediately tells me to pull it in the front yard so we can start scrubbing. I didn’t want to do it. I just wanted to sit down, watch a video, and relax… But nooooo! I’m a good kid and oblige. We clean the car and give the rims a good shining. No problem. Life is good.

Next day, I come home from a lengthy day of work and warm up a bowl of food in the microwave. My loving mom is sitting at the kitchen ready to talk to her son. I’m low energy and tired and the only thing I want to do is turn my brain off for a few minutes.

I take my food to the sofa. Sure enough, my mom sits next to me at the sofa. God damn it.

Still, I keep quiet and shove the food down my throat. As soon as I’m done, my mom says, “Alright, get ready. Let’s cut the grass.”

I slightly lost it. My inner 5 year old tantrum came out and I’m like, “Damn it! Fine!”. The quote is not well translated through a computer. My arms were in the air and I take long, stomping strides to the kitchen. My mom asks what’s wrong, what’s with the attitude.

The silence right after only lasted a split second. The words were coming out of my mouth and I didn’t give it a second thought.

“Sometimes, I just want to be alone and not speak. I just want to lay down in my room and relax a few minutes.”

That was all it took for my mom to understand. As a matter of fact, she took the matter into her own hands and started to cut the grass without me.

It didn’t take long for the guilt to settle. I don’t know if I should feel bad, but I’m glad she noticed my frustration with her. Today we barely spoke and I’m sure my mom is dying to just reconnect with her son. My selfishness just gets in the way of it. However, I’m sure even the greatest of mother-son relationships need time alone. I sure do.

It’s okay, we’ll get through this. Ha!