“Yo queria trabajar, hacer algo.” my mom said as she picked up clothes from the floor, my sister uncaringly threw. Even after a long day she kept going. My mom, a short, strong woman that wanted to do something with her life. “My friend showed me an advertisement on the newspaper, about a course on daycare at the South Western College, that’s what got me started.” I flashed back when she started her job.
She went ahead and saw her opportunity of starting something that she seemed capable of doing. At the same time we started constructing our house to have more room for the daycare, I didn’t see the point in expanding our house, and I didn’t like change. I was excited for my mom but at the same she wasn’t going to be our full time mom anymore. She came to me many times for help, I felt eager to help her accomplish her goal but I couldn’t take it seriously. My mom had always been a house mom.
She finally graduated from South Western College. Many months after she started advertising but, didn’t really get any good customers she took another big step forward and enrolled herself into Navy Child Development Home; this is where the real challenge started. Navy Child Development Home is strict and you have to do a lot of paper work, she would have to sacrifice her night sleep to finish her work. Once she started moving forward, things we thought were going to get smoother, they did in some sense. My mom started really working. She has to take care kids sometimes from 6 to 6, do the bills, do the housework, and take care of my brother, my sister, my dad, that has a bad knee, and me.
When I come home from school, if the children aren’t there anymore we all plop down in front of the T.V. and eat the delicious food my mom so caringly made. I looked at her, she looked so tired you can see it in her red eyes and the way she ate, I cleaned the kitchen with out being asked, hoping my mom will take advantage and rest for a while more before she starts up again with things that she has to get done.
As I wash the dishes my mom stumbles in, she looks at me then at the clock.
“Tienes mucha tarea?” she asks, minding my work and responsibilities. I think and try to remember the things I still had to do as I rinse a glass cup. I had plenty of homework but helping her seemed more important, I wanted to let her know that I really appreciated all the work she has to do to keep buying me cute clothes.
“Mmm, sort of.” I muttered not making eye contact.
“If you have a lot of homework go do it, I don’t want you to stay up late.” She strictly told me. I thought how she always had to wake up earlier than me and always went to bed later than me. She should be telling herself that, I thought.
I look at her now with a year working like this. “Do you miss your old life, when you didn’t have a lot of little kids running around? What do you miss?”
She looked at me with her still red eyes as she thought, “The Peace. When I could do everything [bills, papers] without stress.” I missed that, too. “Okay, ¿es todo? Estoy cansada y tu te tienes que ir a dormir.” I don’t know how she does it to stay on top of everything and still care about how much sleep I get.
She’s a good mom and really cares on everything she does. Even though it’s hard she is proud of herself, “Yes [I’m proud] because, it’s my own little business and we have gone forward because of my daycare we haven’t lost our house.”
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