Welcome to my world. An altered state of reality in which I sometimes feel as if I am the only one experiencing issues and situations that are ridiculous, funny, frustrating and thought provoking.
She keeps you fed, clothed and smelling good. She also pays your credit card bills and for your town house. You keep her smiling, satisfied and feeling like she found the proverbial foundation of youth. It is a match made not in heaven but on Tinder because she is not your mother but your mamma…as in sugar mamma.
Many Jamaicans are very proud our distinction for having the most churches per square mile as we embrace our spirituality and all that it entails but alas in recent years there has been another aspect of our spirituality that have some seeking answer from a ‘higher power’. Over the last five years our island has been overrun by a plethora of Indian psychics and astrologers who claim that they can resolve any problems from marriage, immigration, delinquent teens, health, fertility and even the age old issue of bad mind.
It is said to be every independent woman’s worse nightmare: the curse of the mamma boy. That male for whom the opinions and views of his mother mean more than any logical or rational argument you can throw at him. Her hold is so tight that not even a new tin of WD40 can loosen it because she still cooks, cleans, comforts and consoles him in a way no other female is allowed to.
You hear it all the time when friends call to ‘do road’ and the man at home lament “I can’t go bro, I’m babysitting”. It begs the question how is it that women take care of their children daily but when fathers do it is generally seen as ‘babysitting’? How does one ‘babysit’ their own children?