The boy child has gone back to college. This is as it should be. Luckily I sneaked in a little sniff of his head when he was on the sofa watching television – television which involved tall teenagers bouncing balls around and showing off their tattos while people with faces painted in various colors yelled and screamed. I pretended to be casually kissing him goodnight, since I go to bed at human hours and he goes to bed at bat hours. This head kiss feint is a common maternal behaviour. Why we like to smell their heads I do not know. I only know that when they are 3 months old you have to do it hour after hour since any babies I was related to preferred to be carried at all times when awake and to curl themselves around my head when they slept. When the babies turn 5 you get to do it pretty much whenever you want. As in, “Come here you!” However once they hit the teen years you need a strategy. I figure it’s good for the aging brain. How to satisfy your craving for the creature that you gave birth to, without letting on.
I have a suspicion that he knows. But we are very High WASP about not discussing the matter. And BTW if I am so lucky as to have grandchildren, I will hold them and bounce them as much as my capacity to bounce by that time allows. But I am not planning to have them sleep curled around my head.
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Mine has just returned from college on his break for a week. I will be sniffing the head come Friday night. I too have been scoring the bridal blogs. My niece has put me on a jewelry quest for earrings for her Vera Wang. I had to use some tough love and tell her that her choice of dangling moonstones will not work. I am grateful to be the mother of sons.
Love this post. How true it is. I miss those head-sniffing, lap-sitting days from when my kids were little. Well, I miss them until I realize how nice it is not to have little ones underfoot anymore. Mine are 26 and 21 and would not put up with head sniffing of any kind. I do get hugs, though, and get my sniffs in surreptitiously. And yes I cannot wait for grandbabies to sniff. And hold. And give back when they’re screaming bloody murder. :)
Ooh. Some other moms. Are we all in the phase where everyone can read and everyone can tie their shoes and everyone can make their own eggs even if they don’t want to? And where they actually might earn some money? Where when they send us links to Vera Wang earrings over IM it doesn’t automatically mean that we will be paying for said earrings? And where, if we are really lucky, they still call us Mama sometimes, even if all sniffing is surreptitious? *luxuriates in this phase with a sigh*
I just "discovered" this post on your sidebar while scrolling down one of your other posts.
I have to say that I do this ALL. THE. TIME. I don't know what it is, but I can't help myself. It ranks up there with hugs, kisses, and squeezes as far as demonstrations of my affections for my children go.
Mine are 33 and 34 (I was a child bride), I've quit sniffing but you are right, the grandkids are still good for a sniff even if the boys do sometimes smell like puppies.
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