Damn You Carrie Underwood

Girl always makes me cry. This time it was her latest song I heard on the way to work after I dropped Faith off for day care the other day. It’s called Mama’s Song. Goes a little something like this…

Mama you taught me to do the right things
So now you have to let your baby fly
You’ve given me everything that I will need
To make it through this crazy thing called life
And I know you watch me grow up and always want whats best for me
And I think I found the answer to your prayers

And he is good, so good
He treats your little girl like a real man should
He is good, so good, he makes promises he keeps
No he’s never gonna leave
So dont you worry about me
Dont you worry about me

Ha, “don’t you worry about me.” Telling a mom not to worry is like telling Howie not to go in the closet full of dirty clothes. No matter how many times you tell him, he just can’t stop himself.

The part about letting your baby fly is what really gets to me. I know being a good parent means eventually putting yourself out of a job one day, but I never want to let Faith “fly.” Maybe when she’s 30 I’ll let her start dating. She’s already growing up so fast….so when I ran into a guy whose son is thinking about going to Iowa State while walking out to my car from work the other day, it was no surprise our conversation brought tears to my eyes. It went a little something like this…

Him: “So you went to Iowa State?” (My re-usuable grocery bag always gives me away).
Me: “Yep, graduated in ’05. Loved it there.”
Him: “My son is thinking about going to school there.”
Me: “Really? I would highly recommend it. It’s a great school and I loved my experience there.” (Yes, I’m paraphrasing as I didn’t have a secret tape recorder in my pocket).

We talked some more about the possibility of his son going to UNL (boo 😉 and in and out of state tuition.
Then out of the blue he just stopped talking.

“Ya know,” he said. “I’m really gonna miss him.” Tears welled in his eyes, causing tears to well in mine.

I didn’t know what to say so I mumbled something about how they grow up too fast and having to go pick up my daughter from daycare.

“Give her a thousand kisses each day,” he said.

I started bawling.

“Nice meeting you,” I replied, and quickly turned to get in my car so he wouldn’t see me crying.

I started the car. Guess what song was on the radio. That’s right, Mama’s Song. Damn you Carrie Underwood.

Carrie and her mom, Carole