Mama Knows, Even When You Think She Doesn’t

I don’t know if you know or not, but I’m a NaBloMo participant. Granted, I’ve fallen off the wagon more than I’ve actually been in it, but hey, that’s why life is all about ~~second~~ ~~third~~ ~~fourth~~ oh never mind, thankfully every day is another opportunity, another chance.

Today’s prompt made me laugh out loud. Not because it was funny, but because it made me think of something that makes me giggle still to this day, every time it happens.

The prompt: Tell us about something you heard as a child that didn’t sound right but now, as an adult, you know to be true

I was a mischievous child, no, really I was.

At a very young age I figured out I could use my baby sister to do things I wanted done but knew I would get in trouble for.

For instance, my mama kept a jar of cookies on top of the refrigerator. I love, love, love cookies. I knew that if I took those cookies down off of that refrigerator, I was gonna be in BIG trouble.

Enter, the baby sister, who just happened to love,love,love to climb. So, I would convince her that she could get to that cookie jar. She just needed some help from, oh! this chair, that book, oh and this box…well eventually the leaning tower would be high enough for her to reach the counter tops and then hoist herself up on top of the fridge.

She would sit up there, get a cookie for herself and hand one down to me. We would eat and eat those cookies UNTIL…

I heard mama coming, then I would hightail it out of that kitchen so fast it was as if were never there. Mama would find baby sister sitting on the fridge, cookie in hand and/or mouth but me nowhere in sight.

♫♪ Cue the dramatic music please DUN DUH DUNNNNNNNN ♫♪

Here mama would come, mad as a hornet and she would find me sitting in my room, looking as innocent as a little flower, she would stop in the doorway and say

“Robyn Adair, don’t you know mama knows everything? Even if you don’t think I know when you’re not being good, mama always know!”

WHAT? No she doesn’t! She never saw me in there. She never heard me leaving that room! How could she know? HOW?

It didn’t stop there, oh no! I heard that phrase for much of my childhood.

I would go out with my friends and we would end up somewhere other than where we said we were going to be, and as soon as my foot hit that door, POW!

“I know where you’ve been and what you were doing! Mama knows, even when you think she won’t or can’t know!”

How in heaven’s name did she always know. Even when I was sitting in my room, whispering to myself, SHE KNEW!

When I was jumping on my bed and she was nowhere around, SHE KNEW

If I got in trouble at school, before I got home, SHE KNEW

HOW, HOW, HOW did mama always know? HOW?

Fast forward many years. Now I have children of my own. I’m not fooled into thinking they are not as mischievous as their mama was. Even with the angelic exteriors, I know that lil inner voice says, go ahead, who’s gonna know? WHO indeed!

I love ‘catching’ them because then I get to use that sweet little phrase my mama always used… “Mama knows, even when you think she doesn’t”

I love how their little faces get that look of pure befuddlement! How in the world could she know? HOW?

I never knew the secrets to how a mama knows until I became a mama myself. One of the best conversations I ever had with my mama was cluing her into the fact that I now know the secrets of mama knows. Oh and they are some juicy little secrets.

They aren’t necessarily passed down from generation to generation, or from mother to daughter, nope, the secrets of mama knows are a God given gift. Ones He knew we were going to need. They are born with us and developed within us until we are in need of them.

Sharing them would be sacrilege, so I shan’t, but if you’re a mama, then YOU KNOW!