Mother of an incarcerated son - The Mother in Me

As I go about my day the Mother in me surfaces often. I could be sitting downtown waiting on one of my buses or on the bus or simply taking my daily walk but when I see young men out and about I just want to hug them and let them know someone cares. What makes me think no one cares? I don't know, to be honest, but it's just how I feel. *shrugs*

The other night while sitting downtown at the bus station I saw a young man in some shorts and a tee shirt and visibly shaking from the sudden temperature drop and the mother in me wanted to give him my jacket and gloves to keep him warm. True indeed, he could have watched the weather channel and been made aware the upcoming change but was there a tv to watch? Did he have a radio to hear it? Was there someone in his life to tell him? Those were my thoughts as the mother in me kicked in.

The other day while going across the bridge I saw a young man walking with his hand in his pockets, head down with an appearance of having the weight of the world on his shoulders. I wanted to ask my ride to stop and pick him up so I could talk to him, ask him where he was going and what was wrong. Why was he walking on the bridge? He could have very well been fine, walking the bridge because he wanted to but none of that mattered when the mother in me kicked in.

A few days before I saw a group of young black men standing around doing nothing but 2 police cars pulled up and began, what looked like, harassing them. Of course I don't know their story and they could have just done something big or done nothing at all but I just wanted the police to leave them alone and stop racial profiling all black males. I wanted to get out and represent them all as my sons but I knew that wasn't possible but it didn't matter once the mother in me kicked in.

I have been feeling this way for a while now and I think it's because I miss my son. All of those young men could have been him at some point, probably was him and I wasn't there. I know we as parents can't be everywhere but sometimes looking at the youth of today I wonder if we aren't doing enough.

Just having a mommy moment...the mother in me just felt like sharing.