Somehow I've become my Mother

Isn't that everyone's greatest fear? Yet, I have.

Mom, God rest her soul, was a wonderful, protective woman, but she always had a way of trying to talk me out of things. When, as a grown man, I brought up the idea of returning to graduate school, she brought up all the negatives. It's not that she tried to talk me out of it, but she didn't really try to talk me into it either. That was my dad's job. He was supportive of just about everything I did - everything that didn't entail costing a lot of money, I should say.

Mom had a way of outlining all of the "well, how are you going to handle this . . ." that might come up whenever I had a new idea for something. And it really rained on my parade.

Though I hated it when she would do it, somehow all of those years of absorbing that doubt and questioning has filtered into my subconsciousness. And, dammit, if I don't find myself doing the same thing to my kids!

Last night Casey was informing us about a college in Orlando that featured a computer gaming degree. Suddenly, I found myself firing every bullet I had at the idea trying to riddle it with holes. Finally, Kristie told me to stop being a spoil-sport and that was when it hit me!

I knew I recognized that voice coming out of my mouth. It was Mom's!