Quotation Saturday: Mothers
Mamacita says: This is the weekend when we celebrate mothers. This cannot be done with two or three sentences.

1.The phrase “working mother” is redundant. ~Jane Sellman
2. The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new. ~Rajneesh
3. I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life. ~Abraham Lincoln

4. A mother is a person who, seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie. ~Tenneva Jordan

5. The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness. ~Honoré de Balzac
6. He is a poor son whose sonship does not make him desire to serve all men’s mothers. ~Harry Emerson Fosdick
7. An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy. ~Spanish Proverb

Charles W. Bartlett, Hawaiian Mother and Child
8. My mom is a neverending song in my heart of comfort, happiness, and being. I may sometimes forget the words but I always remember the tune. ~Graycie Harmon
9. Any mother could perform the jobs of several air traffic controllers with ease. ~Lisa Alther
10. Grown don’t mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown? What’s that suppose to mean? In my heart it don’t mean a thing. ~Toni Morrison, Beloved
11. The only mothers it is safe to forget on Mother’s Day are the good ones. ~Mignon McLaughlin

Mother and Child, by Gustav Klimt
12. A mom forgives us all our faults, not to mention one or two we don’t even have. ~Robert Brault
13. One good mother is worth a hundred schoolmasters. ~George Herbert
14. Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children. ~William Makepeace Thackeray
15. Every beetle is a gazelle in the eyes of its mother. ~Moorish Proverb
16. All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother. ~Abraham Lincoln

17. No one in the world can take the place of your mother. Right or wrong, from her viewpoint you are always right. She may scold you for little things, but never for the big ones. ~Harry Truman
18. God could not be everywhere, so He created mothers. ~Jewish Proverb
19. Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother. ~Oprah Winfrey
20. I regard no man as poor who has a godly mother. ~ Abraham Lincoln
21. The mother loves her child most divinely not when she surrounds him with comforts and anticipates his wants, but when she resolutely holds him to the highest standards and is content with nothing less than his best. ~ Hamilton Wright Mabie
22. The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world. ~ William Ross Wallace

23. There never was a woman like her. She was gentle as a dove and brave as a lioness… The memory of my mother and her teachings were, after all, the only capital I had to start life with, and on that capital I have made my way. ~ Andrew Jackson
24. Who is getting more pleasure from this rocking, the baby or me? ~ Nancy Thayer
25. No matter how old a mother is, she watches her middle-aged children for signs of improvement. ~ Florida Scott-Maxwell
26. Sometimes when I look at all my children, I say to myself, ‘Lillian, you should have stayed a virgin.'” ~ Lillian Carter
27. And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see — or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read. ~ Alice Walker
28. Women do not have to sacrifice personhood if they are mothers. They do not have to sacrifice motherhood in order to be persons. Liberation was meant to expand women’s opportunities, not to limit them. The self-esteem that has been found in new pursuits can also be found in mothering. ~ Elaine Heffner

29. If you bungle raising your children, I don’t think whatever else you do well matters very much. ~ Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
30. I looked on child rearing not only as a work of love and duty but as a profession that was fully as interesting and challenging as any honorable profession in the world and one that demanded the best I could bring to it. ~ Rose Kennedy
31. A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary. ~ Dorothy Canfield Fisher
32. She was the archetypal selfless mother: living only for her children, sheltering them from the consequences of their actions — and in the end doing them irreparable harm. ~ Marcia Muller
33. Spend at least one Mother’s Day with your respective mothers before you decide on marriage. If a man gives his mother a gift certificate for a flu shot, dump him. ~ Erma Bombeck

34. No one ever died from sleeping in an unmade bed. I have known mothers who remake the bed after their children do it because there’s a wrinkle in the spread or the blanket is on crooked. This is sick. ~ Erma Bombeck
35. Becoming a mother makes you the mother of all children. From now on each wounded, abandoned, frightened child is yours. You live in the suffering mothers of every race and creed and weep with them. You long to comfort all who are desolate. ~ Charlotte Gray
36. Giving kids clothes and food is one of thing, but it’s much more important to teach them that other people besides themselves are important and that the best thing they can do with their lives is to use them in the service of other people. ~ Dolores Huerta
37. Blaming mother is just a negative way of clinging to her still. ~ Nancy Friday
38. I love people. I love my family, my children . . . but inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that’s where you renew your springs that never dry up. ~ Pearl S. Buck
39. The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother. ~ Father Theodore Hesburgh

40. When, however, one reads of a witch being ducked, of a woman possessed by devils, of a wise woman selling herbs, or even a very remarkable man who had a mother, then I think we are on the track of a lost novelist, a suppressed poet. . . indeed, I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman. ~ Virginia Woolf
41. A mother’s love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity, it dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path. ~ Agatha Christie
42. You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother. ~ Albert Einstein
43. If there were no schools to take the children away from home part of the time, the insane asylum would be filled with mothers. ~ Edgar Watson Howe
44. What the mother sings to the cradle goes all the way down to the coffin. ~ Henry Ward Beecher
45. My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it. ~ Mark Twain

46. Over the years I have learned that motherhood is much like an austere religious order, the joining of which obligates one to relinquish all claims to personal possessions. ~ Nancy Stahl
47. There never was a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him asleep ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
48. At work, you think of the children you have left at home. At home, you think of the work you’ve left unfinished. Such a struggle is unleashed within yourself. Your heart is rent. ~ Golda Meir

49. A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take. ~ Cardinal Mermilod
50. A mother’s yearning feels the presence of the cherished child even in the degraded man. ~ George Eliot
51. There are lots of things that you can brush under the carpet about yourself until you’re faced with somebody whose needs won’t be put off. ~ Angela Carter

52. Isidor Isaac Rabi’s mother used to ask him, upon his return from school each day, “Did you ask any good questions today, Isaac?” ~ Steve Chandler
53. Sometimes the poorest woman leaves her children the richest inheritance. ~ Ruth E. Renkel
54. Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible. ~ Marion C. Garretty
55. A mother is never cocky or proud, because she knows the school principal may call at any minute to report that her child has just driven a motorcycle through the gymnasium. ~ Mary Kay Blakeley
56. It would seem that something which means poverty, disorder and violence every single day should be avoided entirely, but the desire to beget children is a natural urge. ~ Phyllis Diller

57. Parents often talk about the younger generation as if they didn’t have anything to do with it. ~ Haim Ginott
58. If you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them, and half as much money. ~ Abigail Van Buren
59. Making a decision to have a child–it’s momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. ~ Elizabeth Stone
60. If you want your child to be brilliant, tell them fairy tales. If you want your child to be very brilliant, tell them even more fairy tales. ~ Albert Einstein

Grammar Queen that I am – terrifyingly so, in fact, so watch your step – I absolutely love this cartoon:

Bonus quotations:
61. Motherhood: All love begins and ends there. — Robert Browning
62 It’s a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful. — Roald Dahl
63.. When you’re in the thick of raising your kids by yourself, you tend to keep a running list of everything you think you’re doing wrong. I recommend taking a lot of family pictures as evidence to the contrary. — Connie Schultz
64. Kids don’t stay with you if you do it right. It’s the one job where, the better you are, the more surely you won’t be needed in the long run. — Barbara Kingsolver
65. Being a mother is an attitude, not a biological relation. — Robert A. Heinlein
66. My mother said to me, “If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.” Instead, i was a painter, and became Picasso. — Pablo Picasso

Mother and Child, Picasso, 1901
P.S. What’s that she’s saying? She needs to FIND HERSELF? “Find herself” my Aunt Fanny. Grow a pair, and be a parent to your child. He’ll have pals his own age. YOU can “find yourself” after your job is done.
P.P.S. Does anybody else love it when, out in public, a child says “Mama?” and forty women instinctively turn their heads?
Dirty Little Secrets
Mamacita says: Headline news – More dirty little secrets: yet another coach in this community has been dismissed. No details available to save the reputations of the two or three elitist families who complained that their special snowflakes weren’t given the preferential and gentle treatment they deserved.
I don’t know about you, but whenever I encounter anything like this, I am immediately suspicious of those who forbid the discussion. Those who whined are suspect, naturally, but it is those who allowed whiny people’s wishes to trump the truth and then forbid all discussion who are the real bad people here. The real bad people, and the really bad people. Grammar nerds like me will recognize the difference there. The point is, decent people don’t do things like this. Decent people encourage open discussion, and the more the better.
What are they afraid of, anyway? The truth? I think that’s exactly what they’re afraid of: a truth that would prove them in the wrong.

“I want more playing time, Daddy! Make the mean coach stop telling me what to doooo, Daddy!” Very well, darling, you shall get your way in this as you do in all other things. Daddy and Mummy will make the mean man go away.
This community routinely discards its coaches, teachers, students. . . hard-working people in all walks, and inevitably the powers-that-be will forbid any discussion concerning the circumstances, whys, or wherefores, of the decision. Not merely content to discourage, they will FORBID.
Everybody’s in the dark, and in the dark, there be monsters, and the biggest and most dangerous monsters there be, be rumor and innuendo.

The motto of this community’s school board.
With some open discussion, rumor and innuendo would be banished. It’s almost as if the powers-that-be WANT rampant rumor and innuendo, to divert the people’s attention away from what is really happening. . . .
Oh, surely not.
Oh, surely ’tis so.
This town is famous for it. This town does it all the time. They do it to decent, winning coaches. They do it to creative, successful, and excellent teachers.
This town does it all the time. It’s their thang. We are run by a select group of people who demand and get their way in pretty much everything. The pockets of our administrators and boards are full of people with money who also control the puppet strings that are fastened to the document-signing hands and also the hearts, souls, and mouths of most of our trusted elected officials. I love my town, but much of it is a joke. This breaks my hearts. I love my town, and I trust almost nobody who is in charge of anything here.
I have lived here all my life. I love it. I want my town to be clean and successful and to encourage education and progress and creativity and above all, to be honest and absolutely above reproach in everything that is done here.
But. . . .
The same people are in charge of everything here. Horrible things happen to those who speak out, or who refuse to pander to somebody’s pouty kid or wealthy parent.
But shhhhh, we can’t discuss it. It’s forbidden.
I’m Twelve Years Old – Old School, That Is
Mamacita says: Old school? Me? Yes. Twelve years ago, a former student told me that I should start a blog. “You’ve got such a lot to say about the world,” he said. “Who cares what I think about the world?” I replied. “Lots of people would,” he said.

I couldn’t imagine that. I’m nobody. I wondered if he was right. I guess he was, because I’ve been to conferences all over the country, and spoken to crowds of people, both individually and on panels. People seem to recognize me even before they see my name tag. People tell me that such-and-such a post really helped/spoke to them/influenced them, etc. It’s really, really humbling. And exciting. And humbling. Who would have thought it? Me, with a large readership and people who seemed to like me and take me seriously? It’s like a dream. The good kind, that comes true because you never dreamed it would be possible but it really did and you’re in shock and awe and Oz and Wonderland. And Narnia and Hogwarts. And the Tardis. And all the people who live in those places.
People trust me to represent their businesses online. I love doing this, and I appreciate that trust more than words could ever express.
I’ve met so many wonderful people during this journey. Some of them are still virtual friends, while I’ve met many face-to-face, but I’ve also learned during these twelve years that online friends can be as real as face-to-face friends. Sure, there are creeps out there, but no more so than the number of creeps at the mall.

I’ve learned not to be afraid of the world. The world is actually pretty awesome, and it’s full of cool things and fantastic people. Sure, there are fiery volcanic pits and treacherous waterfalls and cockroaches and people who lie, cheat, & steal, but there are also rainbows and sunsets and flowers and people who are good, true friends. The forever kind. I have also learned, to my intense sorrow, that issues can cause some people to renounce friendship. I would never do that to a friend, but I know now that there are people who do.
That I would still be here twelve years after beginning this funky little blog is amazing to me, and yet, it’s also unthinkable to abandon it, as many are abandoning blogging for the shorter Twitter and Facebook. Oh, I’m on those, too, but this blog saved my soul alive twelve years ago, and it’s done nothing but nourish me ever since. I am so grateful to the internet. Really, I am. It’s a world that was always there, but we had no way of accessing it easily. Now, we can travel anywhere, see anything, contact anyone, and work for a business that’s a thousand miles away, in our pajamas, at midnight.
Thank you, dear readers, for making me feel special. Twelve years is as an eternity in the internet
world, but somehow I don’t feel old when I’m here. I’m happy when I’m on Scheiss Weekly. I’m happy reading your comments. I love visiting YOUR blogs. I love visiting with you on the other social media sites, too, but I don’t think anything could ever completely replace a blog. In twelve more years, I guess we’ll find out.
Also, I wonder if you really understand the title of this blog. Scheiss Weekly. Who speaks German? C’mon. I tried to get Scheiss Daily, but somebody already owned it.
I was traumatized when I began this blog, and that is not an exaggeration. Twelve years ago, I was traumatized, and the title reflected that. I’m fine now, but the title keeps me humble. And fairly sane, although my children might argue that fact.
Time marches on. Time flies. And yet, it really doesn’t. Time stands still. We march. With every blink of the eye, yes, and briefer even than that, our lives are moving ever swiftly towards their ends. It’s this middle that we must make the most of. I am. I hope you are, too.

Here’s to twelve more years. At a time, anyway. A day at a time, and they add up to years.
I love you all. Literally.






