Animals' every action depends on instinct. They sleep when their body tells them to, eat when they need sustenance, mate when hormonal cycles signal the right times. Their days and nights are not run and ruled by clocks, bells, open-and-closed, business hours, appointments. The sixth sense of instinct takes control.
What more than animals, then, are children? Infants are aware of nothing more than vague visual stimuli. Even their bowel movements go unnoticed and uncontrolled. With the exception of mating (though with time that will arise as well) children's instincts vary little from those of wild animals. Their every move is the manifestation of the desire to fulfill what they cannot control.
What is the duty of mothers, then, if not to instruct their children, train them, take from them animal instinct? Mothers have the ever-difficult task of teaching their children from a young age that what makes them human is not fulfilling their every desire in the moment they arise.
These mothers are responsible for removing the natural man--the wolf, the blue jay, the goldfish, the jungle cat--from their precious offspring.
I am not a mother. But I have one. Because of her I am not in debt. I am healthy. I am intelligent. I am creative. I am capable. I am ambitious. I like to think I am a good person.
I did not inherit all of my traits and talents from my mother. But she did instruct me on how to control my instincts for instant gratification--for the new jacket, for an extra helping, for an easy A, for stagnation. She showed me the value in waiting while doing. She took away my natural man.
Little by little, she is making me human.
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