Please Don't Tell Me I'm Like My Mother! Mother Daughter Relationships

Have you ever said to yourself, "Oh, please don't let me turn out to be like my mother"! Every once in a while, I catch myself doing or saying something that is typical of my mother. Don't do that, I say to myself. I guess that is negative thinking because I know I inherited from my mother the two very important traits of self reliance and independence. Here's what I mean. In the 1950's my father was in the Air Reserves and was gone 2 weeks out of every month. We lived on a working ranch about 10 miles from town. Our nearest neighbors were an elderly couple who had no phone. On one side of the ranch was a creek called Peach Creek which was a tributary of the Lavaca River. Our house was a big old stone house that sat on a rise in the middle of the ranch. Whenever it rained a great deal, the land around our house would flood. Because we had a septic tank, during or after a flood you had to be careful lifting the seat on the toilet. There may be a water moccasin in there. So, when it flooded, here was my mother alone with my sister and I and with no way to get out or no way for anyone to get in. I guess I was 3 or 4 at the time and my older sister was 5 or 6, when we had a really bad flood. My father was gone. I don't remember the exact circumstances as to why my mother felt we needed to leave, but my mother got one of our horses, Nancy, saddled her up, got my sister and I up behind her and off we went with Nancy swimming part of the way. We went to our neighbors and they put us in their 1940's pick up truck to take us to town. When my mother was in her 40's, she decided to get her GED and go to college and get her degree. She then taught elementary math for 25 years. She has an independence streak and a healthy dose of self reliance. I know I have these traits in me. My husband says it scares him because he knows that I can get along just fine without him. But those same traits also attracted me to him. Read more...