Seeing the various Mother’s Day inspired posts about less than ideal relationships with Moms has me thinking…I think someone should start website where adults who never had a satisfying relationship with their own moms can find someone willing to form a maternal bond with someone…there’s got to be enough mom and kid deprived people out there to make it a viable option, doncha think? Also partially inspired for my own desire for a real maternal figure…at almost 50, I’ve never had one, and would dearly like one.
So waddaya guys think…am I onto something here? I could call it OKMom…or Mom.com. Possibly PlentyofMoms.
On the journey you will find many people willing to take you into their homes, and also their hearts. Some you pay for, but very discounted, others are free or donation based. As a thru hiker there are many similarities to being a child in a caring community.
You need rides everywhere (except for your home the AT corridor which you need to hike), you need town clothing and showers, laundry services, food, a place to sleep and other needs will come up such as needing some first aid bandages or something to help repair or replace a broken piece of gear that you can’t do on the trail. You may need help arranging mail.
While you could go the commercial route, that is also expensive and there are so many people willing to help because they desire to, and they get great joy over it. It is amazing to see what and how much people are willing to give to support your journey.
Now it is not a single person as the parental figure, as it seems like the OP may be looking for, but it is also accepting that you have a journey and your time with them will be temporary (though there are a few you may stay in contact with). But even with taht it does, or could, meet the needs the OP expressed.
Please don’t take this as threadshitting, because I think it’s a cool idea and a valid concern - hell, yesterday was tough in Chez OneCentStamp, as are all Mother’s Days, because my wife’s own relationship with her mother is so taxing and unfulfilling.
Having said that, tough idea to execute. I think it would be promptly flooded with weirdos, all the way from harmless fetish people - 40-something men wanting to be diapered and breastfed - up to full-on Bates Motel material.
Didn’t they have that in Bloom County? Opus the penguin had lost his mother somehow, so on Mothers’ Day he would ring up Dial-a-Mom and talk to some lady who would give him crap for not visiting, tell him she loved him and ask if he was eating his greens?
OneCentStamp, I realize such an idea might be hard to make reality. Honestly, it’s half tongue-in-cheek, though I really would like it if such a thing existed.
One option that doesn’t go the Internet route is to volunteer to work with people who would be in your Mom’s age group (or at least the age group of people you would like for a Mom). Although my Mom fulfills my Mom needs more than adequately (neatly ticking off pretty much every box on the stereotypical Jewish mother checklist), I unexpectedly found myself with a second Mom when I volunteered to work as a one-on-one reader for a blind woman. It was an amazing and rewarding experience, and very much a mother/daughter relationship in many ways.
I’m sure there are plenty of other circumstances in which you could volunteer to help someone who in turn would provide a maternal bond – although just like with the Moms we grow up with, experiences will vary widely. It’s something to consider, anyway.
