As I look through my window

And out into the street.

I can see I have to go,

So I get up on my feet.

All the time I get a switching,

My mom’s an awful nag,

She never stops her bitching,

I’ve got to pack my bag.

Well as I approached the door

My mother said to me,

“Don’t you come back no more,

you can face reality!”

So I left the house in which I live

Never to return,

My heart, my soul, my life I give,

For a lesson I might learn.......

I was 12 years old when I wrote the above poem, it won first place in a poetry contest and the first place prize was a large Hershey Chocolate Bar. 

I never did leave home and I learned a whole lot by staying under the authority of a sacrificial loving mother. 

I was the oldest son in a home where my dad had left mom and her 5 kids (including me) to survive on their own.  I now know that nagging and bitching were constructive criticism from a loving mom who refused to quit.   Thank You Mom!