Hats off to mom, er our graduate

In anticipation of my teen's graduation from middle school this evening, I, the mom, woke up at the crack of dawn.


After all, there was much work to be done before we delivered our teen at 5:30 p.m. sharp to the auditorium of the local high school, which she will be attending in the fall. Manicure, pedicure, hair and make-up, all of which take just about the whole day for a teen. And it falls on the mom, not the dad (who being the dad had to put in a full day at the office although his first-born was reaching a crucial milestone) to schlep the teen around to get all these done in an orderly and timely fashion.


So to avoid any unexpected dramas from marring an otherwise beautiful moment in our lives, teen and I agreed (or rather, I agreed for the both of us) that we'd need to leave home at an appointed time in the a.m.


Of course, teen being a teen missed my deadline and overslept. In retrospect, she did need to catch up on the 200 hours or so of sleep she missed during the past school year.


Meanwhile, I got the ball rolling in the kitchen about 7 a.m. with a quick breakfast. I glanced at the clock. Got the younger two kids on the bus. Peeked at the clock again. Got things rolling for dinner since time would be tight later, but teen was intent on getting her beauty sleep. (Now, in my days, my very strict dad would have dumped a cold bucket of H2O on my face...and God forbid I should have even fancied any beauty treatments.) But this being America, and my teen being a second-generation Indian-American, corporal punishment can be more injurious to a parent. Moreover, it is every parent’s moral obligation to ensure her child receives the appropriate beauty treatments lest she appear any less groomed than her peers and be shunned from beauty school.


Morning totally wasted for the teen (but quite busy for the mom), and after a quick lunch, teen, younger sister, brother and I set out for our first stop: the nail salon for a manicure/pedicure for the teen and sister, and just a pedicure for me, thank you, since I still had much work to do before the graduation and needed the full function of my hands.


Second stop: CVS. To pick up a hair straightener gadget that also has the capacity to curl the straightened hair. (Now, in my days. the only hair treatment I benefited from were soap and a generous application of coconut oil (done dutifully by my mom, much to my chagrin) to keep it silky and shiny. Kids’ demands these days, as I said, are hair-raising.


Third stop: Grocery store to pick up some ice cream and miscellaneous stuff. Since dad had to put in a full day at the office (did I say that?) and couldn’t be home in time for dinner, and since the graduation ceremony started just as families in America would sit down to eat dinner, we scrapped the plan for dining out. No dining out after the ceremony either since dinner after 8 p.m. for the younger kids is not a palatable idea. So the plan was to dine early at home and to have brownies topped with a healthy dose of cookies and chocolate ice cream for dessert after the ceremony. Of course, since time was of the essence here, I had to resort to making brownies out of a box. But, it was still work.


Home, at last, teen had to get her normally wavy hair combed, straightened and then curled. (Thankfully, we took care of the haircut a few days earlier.)


Brownies in the oven, I had to rush upstairs as teen needed help with her dress. (Note: It took two trips to various stores for teen to settle on a couple of dresses, neither of which appealed much to her now). The yellow-brown floral summer dress, which she finally decided upon, looked perfect in my eyes, but looked just not right to the teen, which necessitated the use of safety pins and other tricks by mom to make it look just right. Then, just a touch of lip gloss (thankfully, she is not much into artistry yet).


Now my teen was ready for prime time but there was no time for dinner. We rushed to have a quick snack to tide us over till late dinner, and dad, I’m sure, broke a few traffic rules to deliver teen at school just in the nick of time.


As the graduate walked toward the stage up with her head held high to receive the official document that certified her competence in all subjects, I couldn't help but wonder when I would get my certificate. After all, didn’t this mom (and dad) do all the hard work to get teen to this memorable point?


P.S. As I saw my teen march toward the stage with 350 or so of her peers, I felt a lump in my throat and my eyes watered. It was literally a back-breaking, grueling three years in middle school for her and for us, but teen survived and did great. She graduated and received the honor of President’s Academic Achievement Award. Teen, we’re proud of you babe. Now, graduation dinner is on you!!!