Important lessons from Mom 2-25-24

 The Most Important Thing I Learned from My Mom

Flynn Family Story Slingers

24 February 2024

by Cary Holmquist

The list that I could assemble for “the most important things I learned from my Mom” could likely take up a ream of paper or megabytes of memory—approaching nearly endless.  Just when I come up with one zinger of an item, then a dozen others upon which that one depend comes zooming in. 

Almost universally, mothers are the first teachers we have—infants learn almost everything about the first basic actions for living from their mothers.  I have never heard that any person alive who knew more than their mother when they were born or even years beyond that.  Certainly I am no exception to that observation.  Even mothers themselves are under that mortal development.

So contemplating this list gets me going about what could be the most important thing that my mother taught me. What would be at the top—or more significantly, at the bottom of that list. From the most basics tasks for life, that came at different stages of development, from using a spoon to get nourishment in, to what to do about the other end of anatomy’s functions—and so much in between.  

Mother’s voice and directions, repeated so many times in order for me to really learn—including the basics of language and communications—became the basis for everything else that would follow.  What could be more important than that?  

It seems to go deeper than that, however, even without getting all the more philosophical about it or reaching for further psychological concepts.  

There might be more that is even deeper than where my thoughts have settled, but it seems to me the most basic and longest lasting—which have to be right at the top—and bottom— of “most important”—that I learned from my mother is what we learn long before we know it even has a name, is trust.

Without trust, that is, trust in what Mom is teaching me and what I learned from her, all of the other things that she might be teaching me would be tentative or even deniable and therefore so temporary that they could not be termed as “things learned.”  That allows even for accidents and up the unintentional to be tolerated because we learned to trust that even mistakes happen and we can go around them.  Who teaches us that, I ask you?

With trust, all other things that Mom has to teach are reliable, worth learning and remembering.  And as development proceeds, that trust makes most learning possible and dependable.  Experience gives us the testing ground for that trust, but if we don’t learn to trust from that first and dependable teacher, then we/I would have nothing reliable on which to base any other things to be learned.

Even that national motto, “In God we trust,” can  be preceded by knowing what trust is in the first place.  And who I learned to trust first and foremost was Mom.  Later, after Mom’s teaching, I learned that God is greater in which to invest trust.  To begin with, it was Mom who taught trust and then it followed that God would, could, should be trusted.  Perhaps we knew better in the pre-mortal existence, but here in mortality, it was Mom who taught me that trust was possible and necessary for all else to follow.

And so, it might come down to this equation:  Mom = Trust.   

Then the list goes on from there.

The Most Important Things 

Carrie Keiser

What are the most important things I’ve learned from my mom?

Hummm

Well, lets see:

If you pull out in front of someone, make sure you you use the pedal on the right!

If your son hands you the keys to his sports car and tells you not to hot rod, lay some rubber and do not stop when he chases you down!

You are only as old as you feel, never grow up! 

Reading is important.

Don’t make choices that could land you in jail, you just might get to experience a few hours behind bars. 

Hosanna Tabor:

I learned through a variety of teaching/learning experiences that it is worth the discomfort and frustration of imparting knowledge to someone else. The one that sticks out the most to me is learning to drive stick shift and being terrified and, at time, adamant that I’d never figure it out. And my mom kept making me get back behind the wheel, which could not have been a fun experience for her - frankly, at times it was probably terrifying. But boy am I grateful she kept prodding me back to it because it has become something I really enjoy and look forward to doing when the opportunity presents itself.

Savanna Keiser:

One that comes to mind right now is that you taught us we didn’t need makeup to be beautiful and I think that was really important considering how society and social media said differently. 

EmmaLece Keiser:

How to keep a clean house, learn life skills and be polite and good to people.

Shantel Lee:

Important. I mean you taught me how to raise a human and how to cook and bake and be a responsible wife and mother.

Daren Flynn:

She was patient-- I'm still learning that!

You had to be be careful what you said you liked around my mother in law because she would get it for you. 

Myrna Flynn:

Mom was good for her word. She was very generous.  

Clancy Flynn:

Never say: I'm bored, or mom would find something for you to do and you wouldn't like it!