It was like a knife to the heart the first time I heard my son call his teacher Mom.

Now, my very trusted neighbor is my son’s teacher. I’m extremely lucky to be able to take my son next door for school every day, and to know that he is in amazing hands. It is easy for him to call her Mom, because she has two daughters at home and that’s what they obviously call her. It still hurt that first time, and stung a tad after that. The mom guilt of working set in immediately when I heard him call her mom. I thought, “Is she replacing me? Am I not around enough?”

But as I really began to think about it, I realized it was a blessing he was calling her mom. He loves her, trusts her, and cares for her. She treats him as one of her own, and I’m extremely lucky for that. She tells him she loves him and gives him hugs and kisses. She tells me everyday about all the cute things he did that day. Mom is just a word, and at his age (2 ½), he doesn’t truly understand the title.

I would say to you working moms that struggle with hearing your children call someone else Mom….it’s ok. You are still their mother, and they know it. You know it when their face lights up when you walk through the door to pick them up, when they reach for you when they’re upset, when they cry when you drop them off.

Have you dealt with this before? How did you react? Does it bother you?