By Lindsay Lansing
As BYU students look in the mirror, they may not see their mothers” gray hairs, tummies streaked with evidence of childbearing or varicose veins. But some students admit to seeing parts of their mothers in themselves.
Now, many BYU students are finding that not only do their kitchens have to be spotless, but their pants have to be neatly pressed and shirts ironed before they can leave the house. What is happening? Can students dare say they are becoming more and more like their mothers?
After all, Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Men are what their mothers made them.”
Jake Lee, a 18-year-old freshman from Draper, said he is very much like his mother.
“My mother has a red personality and I never thought I could be like that,” Lee said. “I swore growing up that I wouldn”t be as stubborn as my mom, and now that I”m older, I see that I”m more stubborn,” he admitted.
Twenty-four-year-old Karsen Delgado, a graduate student getting her masters in nursing, said the older she gets, the more she becomes like her mother.
“My mom is a perfectionist and always worried and freaked out about the house,” Delgado said. “And now I can”t live in a messy home.”
Delgado also said she feels like she has acquired many of the personality traits of her mother.
“My mom has very high expectations of herself, and is a true perfectionist,” Delgado said. “I can see that I am a lot like that now.”
Brie Greenhalgh, a senior majoring in history teaching from Orem, also talked about her mother”s cleanliness in the kitchen. She said that her mother would only use the specific kitchen utensils for the exact task it was intended for.
“You can use the same utensils for different things in the kitchen,” Greenhalgh said.
Greenhalgh now finds herself acting the same way as her mother and said, “I”m trying to get better at that.”
Lee said that with time many people become closer with their mothers.
“In LDS culture, mothers are home more often and so more of their traits rub off on us,” he said.
When asked what he was going to do for his mother for Mother”s Day, 21-year-old Anthony Shaw from Waveland, Miss. said, “I”ll probably just give her a phone call and tell her I love her.”
