Where The Wild Things Are

I attended Where The Wild Things are this weekend with my daughter, Amanda. I was somewhat reluctant to see this movie, because I couldn't imagine how such a beloved book could successfully be made into a movie. I was afraid that the costuming and animation would be awkward and that the script would be boring.

Not so! The interplay between the single-parent mother and Max reminded me of my relationship with my own son. Max's reaction to the mother's boyfriend and to the mother giving attention to the boyfriend really was evocative of how my son, Matthew, reacted to my own dating experience.

I watched this movie with tears and laughter. Being an eight year old boy must be an intense experience. Mothering one is also an intense and mysterious experience. Mothering small children went by so fast. Only for one brief year did I have the privilege of mothering an eight-year-old Matthew. I miss that Matthew so much, and only see glimpses of him sometimes in my twenty-six year old son. The movie made me feel such nostalgia for that year. It also made me sad that I missed so much while attending to the busyness of being a single parent, doing so much during that year out of survival and necessity, and oblivious to much of the emotional life of my children.