(s)mothering

spelling has not come too easy for my little son.

he has struggled in that school arena.

last night we went over his spelling words and he spelled them right. I cheered and told him I believed in him. he said he believed in himself, too.

I wanted to go over them again in the morning to cement in his brain that he could do it, but of course were rushed getting out the door and I forgot to drill him.

in fact I didn’t remember about the spelling test until he was getting out of the car.

so what did I do?

what does a mother do for her baby? a smothering mother?

I follow along side in my car as he walks to the crosswalk in front of the school. I roll down the car window and yell out to him:

“Weston—remember your ending sounds are oo and ue” (if only I had yesterday’s smeared mascara to make this picture complete)

and what does the smothered child do?

he covers his ears and keeps on walking.