Mom's

My daughters are such good Moms.  The raven haired bombshell beauty with the killer smile on my left is Angela (35), who is Mom to Ava (10), and Emma (7).  The gorgeous blond with the killer smile on my right is Jackie (almost 37), (not to be confused with my wife), who is Mom to Will (9), and Owen (6).

That's me in the middle; shocker that I'm only 40 in this picture.  I am known to my daughters as Dad, Pappy, and "The Man In The Hat".  The last one is a moniker that just keeps popping up everywhere in my circles of influence; so I'll just go with it.

I had to dine alone a few weeks ago for dinner; and Chick-Fil-A was my location of choice (2 original sandwiches sans pickles, and a chocolate shake sans whipped cream) did me just fine for the evening.

I was surrounded by Moms.  And young children.  Seriously everywhere.  I do numbers; you know that.  While enjoying my food, I did analysis of numbers of course.  Pam would be have been figuring out what was going on in their lives; I just wanted to play with numbers...

Mom jeans #1 (30?) to my right had 2 daughters, both incredibly well behaved, like both of my daughters were.

Mom jeans #2 (35?) to my right, immediately in front of Mom jeans #1, had 4 sons (I am one of four sons), and 3 of the 4 were hanging from the ceiling, the window, and the underside of the table.  1 of them was obedient, and he was the darling of his Momma's eye.  He reminded me of Will.  

Mom (professionally dressed) #3 (27?) directly in front of me had 1 son and 1 daughter, neither older than 3, and this young Mom was super stressed.  She must have had a challenging day at work.

Mom (also professionally dressed) #4 (30?) directly behind Mom jeans #2, and 2 sons, and 1 daughter; and they were continually hitting and running from playground to food, food to playground, and playground to food.  The Mom never looked up from her texts the entire time I was there.  The daughter was boss Mom (like Ava), and was doing her best to make sure her siblings ate while playing.

Mom (also professionally dressed) #5 (40?) sitting behind me had 1 teenage son.  This son was quite engaging, and I heard him talking to his Mom during the whole meal.  He reminded me of Owen.

Mom (shabby dressed) #6 (45?) had a big table pushed end to end, with 6! children (3 boys, and 3 girls) crowded around the table.  I can't imagine trying to corral 6! children (ages 2 to 12) in a place like this.  2 of the 6 were ADD, 2 of the 6 were quiet as church mice, and 2 of the 6 were constantly in a state of fighting with each other.  This Mom looked stressed beyond her years.  Her Emma though is the only child that made her smile, as she whispered things into her Mom's ear a few times that only her Mom could hear.

My analysis determined:

1) Where were the Dad's?  None of these 6 families had a Dad present.  Were they still at work?  It was 6:30.  Or, quite possibly, were these all single Mom's?  Or both?  Since the divorce rate in the USA is now at 70%, that means that 4 of these 6 were probably single Moms; a sad-sad situation.

2) These 6 families had a total of 18 children for an average of 3.  Throw out the high of 6, and the low of 1, remainder of 11 into 4 leaves 2.75 as a mean.  My sample group was not large enough, or we might have had the national average of 2.4, though there were 30 other families (minimum) with children that I did not process by evaluation.

3) That I was (and am) thankful that Pam never worked outside the home while we were raising our daughters.  And, that neither of my daughters have worked outside the home either by raising their sons and daughters. 

I understand that most Moms have to work in today's world, especially the single Mom's.  Which is another thing that I am so thankful for; my daughter's marriages.  Jackie is rocking along at 15 years, and Angela has clocked in at 10 years and counting.

I love you girls.  Thanks for being such great Moms to my grandkids.  I probably don't say it enough like I used to all the time when you were younger.  But, I am so very proud of you. 

I love you each with all my heart.

I am a blessed man.