The True Definition of Motherhood
Once upon a time, there was a boy and his best friend, a blue monkey named “Ah-ah”. For years, they were inseparable, like a real life Woody and Andy. One day, the kindergartner lost his Ah-ah while camping! Now, every mom who has a kid with a lovey can relate to the panic of this situation! (We do have a back up Curious George in our house now). Sadly, the monkey wasn’t found and life moved on. The boy, now a third grader, has probably forgotten about Ah-ah and is much too old to care about silly stuffed animals, right? Wrong. When after three years he sees his beloved sidekick again, he’s overcome with emotion and becomes that wide eyed, attached little boy again.
As moving as that is to witness (especially with a 9 year old son of my own), it isn’t what touched me the most. It’s the mom. Sure, there was a lot of luck involved in her finding his monkey, but the point is she was still looking, three years later. In the choked up moment when she shows her son his long lost love, she becomes the face of all of us moms who have obsessed about, searched for, found or fixed up the things that are special to our kids. It sums up the entire experience of motherhood for me. We go through every heart wrenching feeling our kids do. And we’ll do anything we can to make them happy, no matter how long it takes.
Do your kids have loveys? Have they ever been lost?
Plus, more from TheBump.com
Biggest Toddler Problems, Solved
Funny Ways Kids Say I Love You
Best Toys for Babies and Toddlers
The Knot Blog
The Nest Blog
This was amazing!! I have a stuffed dog named Samuel That my dad gave me the day I was born. Samuel and I both just turned 26, and I have passed him along to my son who now sleeps with him everynight. He does loan him out to me when I am sick, I suppose he just knows. This made me cry knowing that I would feel the same if samuel was lost and found. wonderful! What an Amazing mom!
Wow that is awesome I do hope that doesn’t happen to my son’s stuffed moose moosey we have almost lost it a couple of times
@Ashley – it is so sweet you passed your lovey Samuel down to your son! I don’t remember ever having a lovey like that. My daughter has a stuffed Curious George she loves to sleep with and we bought two of them. But once we had to use Replacement George and it just didn’t work. He didn’t have the smell/broken in softness. She knew it wasn’t him. Maybe I should sleep with Replacement George to break him in. Haha.
I was given a Snoopy stuffed animal shortly after birth, lovingly named “Noopy”. He was my buddy for years. As I grew older and became too mature for him, he was put away with other keepsakes rarely to be seen. When the day came that I opened that box, my emotional response, even in my twenties, was overwhelming. What a wonderful things this mother was able to do for her son. I never lost Noopy, and I could not even imagine it, I would – to this day – be devastated. I hope that one day I can pass it along as well.