Oscar Moms
by Maggie Van Ostrand
Most people watch the Oscars every year to see who's wearing what or how well their hair stylists predicted the rage do, or who's bling has been blung. In the case of George Clooney, how hard he worked to get the 30 extra pounds off that he put on for Syriana.
Others watch to see which celebrities and which movies win which awards.
Not me. I watch to see who gets thanked. I want to know if credit will be given where it's due.
Last year, it was New Zealand who got the credit and the year before, it was God and agents, and the year before that, it was marketing wizard and Miramax head, Harvey Weinstein.
But at last, in 2006, Oscar finally gave us a banner year. Everybody thanked their mom.
At last count, no fewer than nine winners thanked their moms. In two cases, Best Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Best Actress Reese Witherspoon, enough praise was heaped on their respective moms to satisfy the heart of every watching parent. What about the rest of us mothers?
So it's hurtful for those of us who get no thanks whatsoever from our kids.
Where is our day in the sun? Where is our thanks for a job well done? My kids turned out just fine. I suppose they think they did it all by themselves.
What, they can't admit that, without our loving discipline, they might've turned out to be car thieves or drug mules or worse, they might've had to pick up their own socks?
It's not that moms have an insatiable need to be thanked. No, that's not it. It's just that we'd like a little recognition for all the beds we made, the dusting and vacuuming, the secrets we kept for them, the quiet worrying we did over them, the money we somehow managed to get for their first car, the washing and ironing, the times we held our tongue, the thousands of miles we drove them to sports and musical events, and, through thick and thin, for just being there.
Like Mrs. Hoffman and Mrs. Witherspoon, we who gave our children support all those years, would like to be thanked.
Is that too much to ask?
###
|
