Insults (after Monty Python)

Your attitude was a hamster!

Your face was a hamster!

Your mom was a hamster!

So insulting! My mom is definitely not a hamster, perhaps a little mousy, a little stick chicken, a tidal wave of determination.

My mom lives. Despite four older siblings and two younger siblings who teased and tormented her. Despite a first husband who abused her (let’s just go with that term for now), a father-in-law who belittled her, mocked her, scoffed at her. Despite a second husband who lied and gambled. Despite menial jobs that drained her. Despite the world being a generally shitty place for a woman, my mom lives. If she were a hamster, she’d be the one running, running, running on the wheel.

Maybe my grandma was a hamster. Seven children. Or my other grandma: six children. How did they stop having children? I actually don’t know. Likely hysterectomies, but I think those came much later.

What were my grandmothers’ methods of birth control? Did either of them have miscarriages? My mom had two.

Hamsters and mothers, mothers and hamsters.