10 Reasons it's Good to be my Mom's Kid: a Monday Listicle

I don't know that I've ever linked up with Monday Listicles before, but I usually hop over and lurk around. This week I knew I wanted to dedicate a post to my mom, and what do you know, Stasha had the perfect prompt: 10 reasons it's good to be a kid.

I'm going to tell you why I had a better childhood than you, because while it's good to be a kid, it's better to be MY mom's kid. Here are just a few pieces of evidence.

1. She taught me how to make the world's best popcorn. On the stove. With a pot and some oil and a LOT of butter. And we made it a lot, and ate it together.
2. She oversaw my early musical education: The Monkees. The Beatles. Elvis. Herman's Hermits. The Everly Brothers. Creedence Clearwater. The Beach Boys. This was the '80s, you guys, but she made sure I started at the beginning of rock'n'roll. 
3. We watched all 1,225 episodes of Dark Shadows together. With popcorn. We were down with vampires before it was cool.
4. Musicals! She introduced me to the genre and we still love it. Bye Bye Birdie, Meet Me in St. Louis, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Newsies. And we sang along. Whether the TV was on or not. Life in our house was a musical. I teased her about it, but come on. Who doesn't want to live in a musical?
5. We sang in the car, too.
6. Our house was always grand central station when I was a kid and teenager. Mom loved having a house full of kids, and my friends loved her. "Your mom is so cool!" I've been hearing it all my life, and now I hear it on Twitter from total strangers. Yeah, OK. My mom is SO cool.
7. She taught me how to read, and she showed me how to love it.
8. She told me I was a good writer before anybody else ever did.
9. She set a spiritual example that I'm still in awe of. In a difficult environment, with discouragement at every turn, she managed to raise two strong, intelligent, educated Christian children who know what we believe and why we believe it.
10. She's my best friend, and I owe all my awesomeness to her.

Happy Birthday, Mom. I love you all the way to the planit jopudr in ol my hrte.

For those not in the know: this wonderful woman I call Mom is the blogger at Commonplace Crazy, and @CynthiaMeents on Twitter. Head over today and wish her a happy birthday.