ABSTRACT
He was two years old. He got to the point where he said I wasn’t his mom that I wouldn’t give him nothing. I said I’m your mom, I give you everything you want. And when I told him that at home I got smacked down myself. I told my mother you didn’t let anybody interfere with vou raising your kids, don’t interfere with me. I told her, ‘yeah, I whip his butt, but I don’t child abuse him.’ Kids need their butt whipped while they are little cause you let them have their way, they will walk all over you … I love my child. If he was the last person on earth I would love him. He’s my heart. And like I told my mother, I need somebody to love. Just like she needed somebody. And Jessie tells me every now and then, he loves me, and kisses me a lot. So I tell him, ‘I love you too baby … (I) play with him. I read to him, sing to him … I’m even there for him when he gets sick … once he went into the hospital, I never left him. I didn’t even go home, didn’t even change clothes. The doctors got mad at me, but like I told them, ‘This is my only child.’ (but) I don’t think I’m being fair with Jessie, because really if I was, Jessie would do what I tell him. He would sit down and listen and he would stay in one place like I tell him. But Jessie is up and around. He won’t stay where I tell him. He won’t leave nothing alone. He uses this foul language; language I won’t even use. I wish I could be a better mother than I am. And the only way I can do that is to get my own place…. I know he would have to do what I tell him cause [then] there’s no more grandmother unless I take him around.
