Great Parenting

Ben's witnessed this before, but tonight was my first time seeing it.

The best mother in the world.

Truly, this woman is the only person deserving of the title "World's Best Mom", and all the mugs and sweatshirts and paraphernalia that goes with it.

Ben and I were out for a run, and we had just finished up in my folks' neighborhood. I had gone ahead of Ben, so I missed it on the first lap or so, but when I met up with him, he told me if we stayed out for a bit, we should be able to see it. We were not disappointed.

At first, all I could see in the evening light was a van, driving ridiculously slow towards us, pretty much riding its brakes. Then, as it came closer, I saw why it was going to slow. Running beside the van was a girl, probably only in middle school, running along while her mother drove beside her in the van. Now, I couldn't hear what the mother was saying to the daughter, but any parent that is driving beside their kid as they force them to run is not shouting words of encouragement.

It got even better, as the van passed us, and we could see into the back seat, where an even younger boy was asleep in the back seat, and a baby was in the car seat.

Oh, also, it was pretty cold and windy, and it appeared that the girl was wearing jeans. She might have been wearing blue sweatpants that wore like jeans, but still, she wasn't decked out in proper running attire.

Having a father that made me run track as a kid, despite how much I hated it, I can sort of empathize with this poor girl. Fortunately, my father never hated his kids enough to drive along beside us and yell at us as he made us run, so I could get away with not running more often than not. I cannot imagine how much worse my relationship with my father would have been had he done this. All I can say is I hope I haven't gotten the hell out of dodge before this kid snaps.

We salute you, "World's Best Mom", and we hope your daughter puts you in your place somewhere down the line.