This song is one of the lesser-known songs in Peter Pan, yet it's one of the sweetest and most truthful. Just after Peter is honored by Tiger Lilly's tribe, Michael asks if Wendy is their mother, and she reminds him he has a mother in London and sings him this sweet lullaby to get him to sleep. It also gets the other Lost Boys and Mr. Smee to remember their mothers, much to Peter's annoyance.
This is my favorite song out of all the Peter Pan songs because it shows what a real mother is like. It also hits home for me because I am adopted and proud of it. Though Wendy uses the term "real mother" to mean someone who's flesh and blood not imaginary or a "dream mother", it has another meaning that I hold dear. To me a "real mother" is exactly how Wendy describes one in the song, and she does not have to be biologically related to you to be one. I like to say I'm lucky that I have two: a birth mother and my real mother who raised me and I call Mom. My biggest pet peeve to being adopted is when people use the term "real mother" when they ask me if I want to find my birth mother. I always have to correct them and say I found my real mother when she adopted me but yes I would like to find my birth mother when given the chance if only to find out my heritage and their medical background, anything else would be icing on the cake (especially if I can be lucky and both my families get along great!).
My real mother is a wonderful woman who has made so many sacrifices for me and my little (also adopted) sister over the years and fits this song to the letter. She always makes sure we never have to do without anything and always makes sure we know she loves us so much, even if she doesn't always like some of the scrapes we've gotten ourselves into. I cannot begin to describe just how wonderful she is. She's one of those mothers that even our friends call "mom", because of how awesome she is. I hope that when I start to have kids, I can be just as good to my own children as she was to us growing up. I have so many wonderful memories I could fill a few books, like the time she chaperoned my 6th grade class to Space Camp, all the times she chaperoned our classes to Silver Dollar City, our first trip to Walt Disney World, all the times she let me be in the kitchen with her to learn how to cook, our trips to visit far-away relatives I could go on and on. She also told me my favorite bedtime story whenever I asked as a child. You would think it would be something like "Grover's Ice Cream Stand" from my SesemeStreet bedtime book or a Bible story like The Nativity. It's acutally none of the "normal" bedtime stories. It was always the story of how she got me; mom and dad prayed almost 11 years for God to give them a baby because mom can't have children and then finally one day while mom was at work her friend who was a nurse at the hospital called and said they had a baby girl ready for them to pick up (I would always ask if she was me and she would always reassure me I was), then they picked me up, took me home and thanked God for answering their prayers. After my little sister was born she added the point that two years later, their prayers were answered again and God gave me a little sister. It's a story I'll always cherish because she made me feel so loved and wanted and that my birth family loved me enough to want to give me a better life, which I have gotten and can't thank both my familiies enough for. I know I cannot wait to have children to pass that story onto them. As a child, her simple bedtime story made it easy to understand what being adopted meant. As an adult, knowing how the adoption process works, I'm even more grateful to them for the sacrifices I know they had to have made just to get me. So to me this song speaks about my mom, and always will. I cannot thank her enough for everything she's done for me!
So until next time, remember to thank your mothers and remind them how much you love them and Keep Cooking With Character!
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