Maternal Terminology

I have two mothers. I realize that my uses of the word mother and mom in my postings can get confusing, with readers not knowing which I'm referring to in any given note. My biological mother and my step mother. This is not unusual. More often than not, nowadays, blended families are the norm. What is, perhaps, slightly less common, is the tenuous relationship between me and my Bio-Mom, as I will refer to her now. She suffers from severe bipolar disorder, with frequent psychotic breaks from reality. She's been in and out of hospitals, prison, the streets, mental health institutions, and halfway houses since I was a baby. At any given point in my life, she may be stable, as she is at the moment, or distinctly not, for weeks, months, even years at a time. When she is "normal," I talk to her by phone nearly every Sunday. For me, they are often strained and simple conversations, filled with edited versions of daily goings-on.

When I was eight, the state essentially took me away from her, and I went to live with my biological father, who was, by then, back from the war in 'Nam and remarried to my Step Mom. It is she who essentially raised me, she who I think of as my Mom. From this point forward, Mom and Mother will refer to her.

I realize this is a lot of heavy stuff to lay on you at once, in these two postings, but there you are. Such as it is at the moment.