Honouring the Original Teen Mom

Almost 37 years ago, there was a 15 year old girl finding out that her life would be changing forever and in a way she may not have expected.  The change was that she would be going from a average teenager to a Parent.  Despite having options that would have been "easier" and "simpler" she chose a road that I never ever could have chosen, she chose to raise the baby.  I know so much about this person, the person I mockingly call the Original Teen Mom (yes I know there were millions of teen mothers before her) because that baby was me.  In honour of my 36th Birthday, I decided to honour my Mom for being so awesome and doing such a great job raising me.

Unlike certain reality shows, that tend to glamorise being 16 and a Mom or have camera crews to catch all the mistakes that are made to be played out over and over again on blogs and celebrity (hello since when does getting knocked up equal being on TV?)"news" programs there was nothing remotely glamorous going on.  There was support from Family but for the most part it was just the two of us.  I am not going to bore my readers with stories about the relationship between my Parents mostly because I don't remember them together much and that isn't my story to tell.  To ensure that there were clothes on my back, food in my belly and a roof over my head my Mom took a job in a factory assembling lamps.  In order to ensure she got there on time it meant hauling me across the city at the crack of dawn.  There were times I got to go to work with her and it was fabulous.  No, no it wasn't some child labour camp it was amazing.  The people my Mom worked with bought me treats off the food truck and I got to sit at my Nanny's (my Grandmother not someone my Mom paid) desk and colour on her calendar.

If I was my Mother, I would have probably have left me on the steps of a Church somewhere if I had a child who pulled any of the following:
1-Seeing an ad on the Subway during rush hour for Raid and hollering "Hey Mom, that's what we use to kill our bugs
2-Telling an old man on the Subway that it was okay to eat cake for breakfast since my Mom did it every day.  I do not recall ever seeing my Mom eating cake but my Mom was pregnant with my Sister at the time
3-Announcing very loudly on a very crowded bus that I needed to poop and poop immediately.  Keeping in mind this was 1979 and public transit wasn't very user friendly, Susie got off the bus even though the next bus was going to be in an hour just so I could ..........fart.  Did I mention it was the dead of Winter and colder then my attitude at 13?
4-Reaching over and pulling off a wig of some random woman on the subway.


It was the Charmaine and Susie Show (missed those merchandise promotional opportunities, where were her PR people???) for the longest time.  We had our routine and the highlight was payday!!!!!  After work we would head to Bargain Harold's on Gerrard near Coxwell to buy new Goody brand hair barrette since I would lose most of them while out and about.  The other part of the tradition was going to The Sunrise Restaurant which was great until I had to go to the bathroom.  Oh my Buddha on a bobsled, the bathrooms in this place were bright orange and the smell was enough to knock you out.  I ran into someone years later who had been a waitress there and she remembered how I would carry on.  Thank goodness Harvey Levin and crew weren't around then otherwise I would have been all over the "news" for my Diva like behaviour.  In September 1980 things changed, we went from a 2 person show to a 4 person show and one of the side characters was a little sister.  The relationship we have is a whole other entry but let me tell you I was less then impressed to have a squawk box honing in on my territory.  As she lay quietly in her crib sleeping I would use my Ninja skills to sneak into my Mom's room and peer through the bars of her crib and slowly reach in and grab her her toes and squeeze and pull on each one until she screamed bloody murder.  When asked why she was crying my response was "I don't know" and was usually followed by "can we send her back to the Hospital now"

When I went through my I hate you, and you and everyone else phase (can a phase really last 10 years??) and generally wasn't a very pleasant person to be around-hell I didn't even like being around me most of the time; Susie was there rolling with the punches.  Calling me out on my bullshit when needed and loving me more then I loved myself at times.  There were the times when she told me that she didn't like me very much (and trust me I wouldn't have liked me either) but she would always love me.

When one of my best friends in High School made a decision that almost cost her her life, there was only one person who I could call and I did.  I called my Mom who at the time embarrassed me by yelling at my friend for the whole 15 minutes we were in the car.  To this day, almost 20 years later I am still thankful for her yelling.  I don't know if I ever told this to my friend but my Mom yelled at your Father also and told him to get his head out of his ass.

Speaking of High School, I had an amazing English teacher who is absolutely brilliant.  For one project he assigned the novel Tess of the Duberviels, I am certain this is an amazing book however it kept making me fall asleep even the Cole's notes did the same thing.  I knew that if only Hamish (my teacher) knew that it was medically impossible to continue reading I would be excused from the assignment.  One day after class I explained the situation to him and he seemed very concerned and kept asking if the prognosis was correct.  A short time after I left the class, he called my Mother to talk about my "situation" which she brought up immediately when I got home from school.  I had told Hamish that I had a horrible case of Necrophilia when I meant to say Narcolepsy-oops big difference between falling asleep without warning and having sex with dead people. 

On July 5th, 2004 my world changed forever and I wanted to die.  I planned on dieing but it was my Mom who made me flush the toilet instead of swallowing.  I have never told her that for fear of disappointing her. 


I am so proud of you for growing up from a 16 year old who had a baby and that is about it to an amazing Mother (of 3)  and an even better Nanny to 3 and a great example of what hard work and dedication look like.  There weren't big parties thrown so our pictures could be in glossy magazines.  There weren't veneers and Botox shots at 22 to regain your "lost youth" there was the same pair of crappy running shoes worn for years on end and ponytails worn because you knew what was important and what wasn't. 
Thanks for being such an amazing Mom, love you.