>What makes a mom? Or a dad? What makes a parent? That’s the topic posed by the Parent Bloggers Network and Light Iris today.
The easy answer is this: It’s different for everyone.
The personal answer is: It’s different every day.

You know you’re a mom when:

• You take the child’s fancy bike to a fancy bike shop for a safety tune-up, and he announces loudly that you bought your own bicycle at (gulp) Fleet Farm.
• You take your personal day from work to drive five hours, round trip, to pick up your college student’s aquarium and fish. That’s fish, singular. Not plural. (and please note: I enjoyed the entire drive and visit!)
• You spend the day with a group of youngsters at your daughter’s high school and marvel at the idea that she’s no longer there: she graduated two years ago.
• You exchange worries with another mom while secretly thinking, “Wow! I don’t worry as much as she does!”
• You call home to leave a message that you’re stuck behind a train and will be home any minute, just in case your disabled child’s bus gets home before you do.
• You learn to text message, email, and use IMs — and you’re a Baby Boomer
• You don’t worry if your computer crashes; the kids will be home soon.
• You actually like fruit snacks and yo-gos

You know you’re a parent when you come to enjoy and look for the little contrasts in life. For example:

• the 9 year old shopping for Beanie Babies and bras
• the 15 year old with the rapidly deepening voice, who snuggles the cat he made himself at build-a-Bear workshop
• the 20 year old who types out a three page list of instructions for fish care, but forgets to send the fish food home with you
• the kid who moans and groans about how you make him work too hard, but then labels you as “nice” in his Spanish report on his family

What makes you a mom? A dad? A parent? Too many variables play into this. I’ll just tell you this: you’ll know. Trust me, you’ll know.