Things I Learned from My Mum

In quite a few countries Mother's Day is celebrated in May, however, not on the same day of the month.
My mum has always been a friendly, straightforward and  an open minded person, liked by most  people whom she meets on her way. Her life has not been easy but she never complained or got bitter. When she came back from work, she did all the housework, cooked, spent time with us, sewed and so on, and so on. The older I get, the more I appreciate all the things she did for us and what I learned from her.
Below you can read about some of them.

Standards

1. 'Want' means 'can' = if you want to achieve something means you can do it. If you do not succeed at once, do not give up, try again. It is one of mum's sayings - when I was younger I heard it often. It sometimes sounded annoying, especially when I was upset because I did not manage to do what I wanted. On the other hand, it encouraged me to move on and look for other ways to achieve my goals. 
2. Being responsible and reliable - you do not promise anything if you know you cannot keep your promise, if you promise something you hold your word.
3. Duties first, pleasures later - first do what is needed to be done (including paying bills), rest and play when you finish it. 
4. Looking good/nice means feeling good, looking untidy means feeling miserable. Mum has always taken care of her appearance, without any exaggeration though. She has never used much makeup (it is usually a lipstick only) but always found a nice look (hair/clothes) important and uplifting.
5. To look nice you do not need very expensive clothes. The key to success is the ability to match styles, colors and patterns.
6. A high price not always means high quality. Nevertheless, it does not make sense to buy cheapest stuff, if its quality is low/ something does not last long. Then you have to spend even more money buying things again and again.
7. Think positively. If you close that positive 'door', what else is left?
8. An intelligent person never gets bored - another of mum's sayings - there are always many interesting things you can do or learn. Mum has always been a very creative and resourceful woman who also enjoyed learning new things. At present, she attends computer classes among others. Anyway, I am not sure if it is a result of what I was taught, but I do not get bored. Just the opposite - I wish I had more time to do everything I would want to!

Home

1. Home is a place on Earth where you find love, peace, understanding and support of your family, no matter what has happened at school or at work. Just no matter what.
2. It is important for a family to have meals together, especially dinners - it gives an opportunity to talk and share what has happened during a day. It creates bonds and makes the family members be together, not next to each other.
3. The importance of dinner in general - when I started to work but was still living at mum's, coming home after a busy, tiring day was like coming back to a safe port. Dinner was waiting on the table, we talked, and all the annoying and stupid things which happened earlier, were no longer that important and upsetting as they had seemed to be. The meal was calming my hungry stomach whilst our talks and mum's presence was a balm to my soul. These days, when in a restaurant, it is sad to see people (also families) sitting at the same table but actually not really being together, as they do not talk to each other at all - they are busy dealing with their iphones instead.
4.  Money is important (we all have to pay bills, buy food, clothes etc.) but it is not more important than people. Mum has never said 'I am too tired/busy to talk you you'. She was always there for us when we were younger. Mum knew it would have meant: 'I do not care'. And she has always cared - even now, although we are all grown ups.
5. All family members take care of home - everybody has their duties to take care of. When we were little, we also had little things to do such as watering plants, dusting, taking the rubbish out or tidying our room. We were never paid for doing those things though, and we did not expect any money either. Some things need to be done, even if you are not paid for it.
6. The way she took care of us, our clothes and our home. When we were little, mum mended our clothes in the night, while we were asleep. In the morning we could find them next to our beds, refreshed and ready to be put on again. I was always amazed when I woke up - how it was possible that my tights looked brand new again. Mum used to say that a sprite had come during the nighttime and fixed them. Guess what, I believed it!

Skills

1. Reading.
Mum used to read us books when we where small which triggered our interest in reading. Later, when we got old enough to do it on our own, we did enjoy reading a lot. When we started elementary school, mum assisted us while we were doing our homework. She also explained us different topics and helped with learning things by heart (including the multiplication chart).
2. How to organize housework to make it efficient - since mum worked professionally, she had little time to do all the housework. However, it did not mean she could not do it well or do it at all.
3. How to do cooking and baking without turning the kitchen into a messy place.
4. How to style my hair on my own.
5. How to knit.
6. How to make clothes and sew.
7. How to redecorate things/walls, etc. at home.

I was very proud of the results of my work - redecorating our home and later my place too. It was quite a tiring job, not easy to do. But we always helped each other as much as we could, and that was how I learned painting the walls and ceilings, and doing quite a few other things too.

Other

Music. Mum has always enjoyed listening to music. A radio was most often on at our home. More often than a TV set. While listening to the radio you can do many other things, including eg. talking, reading books or working. Nowadays, I also listen to the radio most of the time.