Hey Thanks Mom

Hey Mom, just quickly note that I’m calling you Mom with an ‘O’ because I grew up in the USA and that’s what we say. I assume that if I call you Mum with a ‘U’, you won’t realize I’m talking to you. You’re old. I don’t want to confuse you.

I’ll start by apologizing for always making fun of you. I discovered the humor in making fun of the people I love at a young age. Once that was discovered, I don’t remember a time when I didn’t take full advantage of that with you. So ... I’m sorry and thank you.

I’m also sorry that you had to clean up after me for all those years. I know I was comfortable living in my own filth, but now that I have two sons to clean up after, I realize that you had to go through a lot. Sorry about my dirty clothes. Sorry about my dirty dishes that I left under my bed. I’m sorry about using 20 cups per day to have drinks of water, filling all those cups to the top, taking one drink out of them, then leaving them somewhere around the house mostly full of water. I’m sorry that instead of returning to that cup, I would simply get a new one.

I’m sorry that I was a teenage boy. I know that must have been hard for you.

I’m sorry about my sports injuries and that I always picked the most violent sport I could find. I know why you only came to one of my ice-hockey games. I know why you were mad when I came home with a concussion.

Sorry I swore on the phone that one time.

Sorry I moved to the other side of the world when I was 20.

Thanks for everything, though. Thanks for insisting that I treat women with respect. Thanks for teaching me what it is like to be a man in a world that doesn’t belong to me. Thanks for teaching me about God. Thanks for teaching me to question things. Thanks for teaching me that life isn’t fair, and that life isn’t about me and that I’m responsible for the consequences of my decisions. Thanks for the massive amount of money you gave me that I mostly spent on Mountain Dew and chicken nuggets at the school cafeteria.

Hey Naomi, thanks for being my wife. I just want to send you a quick personal note ... through the War Cry. Thanks for being a strong woman in a house full of gross boys. Thanks for putting up with me. I can assure you that everything good about me came from growing up in a house full of women. I can also say that anything bad about me should be taken up with my mother.

Sorry that my sons are going to be just like me.

Thanks to the most important women in my life. Happy Mother’s Day.

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By Lieutenant Nathan Holt