The Mom Face

Whenever I see a woman brace herself against something and you can just see the determination there, I think of it as "The mom face". Usually that face is something that is only seen on mothers and I assume it comes with the power to take care of anything. It occurs because she has to do or put up with something totally disgusting while keeping everyone around her calm when really she just wants to stamp her feet and go "ewww gross" or run away. Case in point, the time my Mom fought a rattle snake that was under the house when we were little kids.

I've seen that same face in nature. The other day I watched a sparrow literally beat up a hawk. The only way it could hurt it was to dive bomb it and bounce off of it. The sheer force would push the hawk closer to the ground; but it looked like it hurt the sparrow more. The sparrow would just keep dive bombing it and pushing it further and further to the ground even though there was a huge size difference. The first thing I thought when I saw it was "that must be a mom sparrow and she's mad".

The one downfall to Southern Utah is the bugs. Things that usually aren't scary like moths; are scary when it's as big as your hand. There are animals that I can't even recognize like super high bred duck platypus quail things that aren't scary but just ugly and can't be found in any book. The other night a new bug ran across my floor and I was frustrated because people get paid to spray my apartment so this won't happen and I'm a meticulous housekeeper. Plus, I didn't know my enemy. I found myself thinking "Ok, what's your superpower? Do you fly, breathe fire, what?"

I watched it run into the other room and instead of freaking out I grabbed my hiking boots and a broom. Then I shut the door and said "One of us isn't leaving this room". Even though I don't have kids, I just literally felt "the mom face" come over me. Since I don't have kids, it didn't last and I have now avoided the kitchen for the last three days.