Double Standards
She hears them whisper behind her back how she is a terrible mother. How she doesn’t deserve to have a family, let alone a charming son because of her selfishness. How cruel she is for making him move out when she found herself a new man. How heartless she is for sending him away to boarding school.
She smiles in feigned ignorance and genuine disinterest at the gossip and scuttlebutt. She doesn’t care for their opinion because, all things considered, she has been an exemplary mother.
She had raised him according to the ways of her kind, according to their standards and requirements.
She never denied her son anything, be it clothing, food, books, playthings of both the non and the living variety.
She had let his father, his real father educate him in the ways of humanity, in shaping his character to obey the moral code of which earthlings subscribed. She is pleased that her son does not reject the teachings of her husband. She is even more pleased that her son obeys the letter of the law and not its spirit.
She disciplined him whenever he was caught misbehaving and she always made certain that he understood the reason behind her disappointment. That it was not the act itself that displeased her, it was the fact he had been discovered.
She had taught him that a smile can be disarming or suspicious depending on the context.
She allowed him his freedom and independence once he learned how to feed himself. When he knew how to lure prey and could resist the urge to completely drain them dry. Normally all ties between mother and child are severed at this point, the young is expected to fend for his or herself.
But her first husband would not have it. And no amount of influence on her part could convince the man that her role as parent was done.
"Earth's society doesn't work that way," he had told her firmly.
While the concept was as alien to her as she physiologically was to her husband, she gave in. That was her burden for living on Earth, her continued duration as a mother was the price she must pay for choosing a human as a mate.
For a time she had no trouble with the arrangement. Until her husband passed away and she required a new provider and host.
When her kind found a new mate, any children from the first coupling would have been eaten by the mother (or in certain cases father) to enable a smooth integration. But she found herself torn between her genetic predisposition and this unforseen desire to have her child survive.
She blames the influence her first husband had on her and how she had grown soft and weak in his company. She decided to compromise by sending her son to live in the guest house, out of sight but not completely out of mind.
She should have ignored the unnatural urges of concern for her son. Perhaps if she had, he wouldn’t be what he was now.
By her kind’s standards her son should be put down given his condition. No one can know of their secret. He was a liability to her and to the life she had built. Such threats are normally dealt with swiftly and without mercy.
However, she doesn’t think she can bring herself to kill her first and only child, which was a level of maternal devotion unheard of from her ancestor's opinion.
She still considered him her son, though without affection and without disdain.
She denies this, naturally. Insisting that taking his life would be an act of kindness, that he has to live with the consequences of his mistakes, learn from his errors and other such character-building nonsense his real father might have said.
And so, she let him live, let him leave under the excuse of transferring to an academy in some foreign country. She didn’t offer to help him regain his former luster but she didn’t deny him access to his funds or his father’s equipment either.
A bad mother, indeed!
These humans don’t know what they’re talking about.
She smiles in feigned ignorance and genuine disinterest at the gossip and scuttlebutt. She doesn’t care for their opinion because, all things considered, she has been an exemplary mother.
She had raised him according to the ways of her kind, according to their standards and requirements.
She never denied her son anything, be it clothing, food, books, playthings of both the non and the living variety.
She had let his father, his real father educate him in the ways of humanity, in shaping his character to obey the moral code of which earthlings subscribed. She is pleased that her son does not reject the teachings of her husband. She is even more pleased that her son obeys the letter of the law and not its spirit.
She disciplined him whenever he was caught misbehaving and she always made certain that he understood the reason behind her disappointment. That it was not the act itself that displeased her, it was the fact he had been discovered.
She had taught him that a smile can be disarming or suspicious depending on the context.
She allowed him his freedom and independence once he learned how to feed himself. When he knew how to lure prey and could resist the urge to completely drain them dry. Normally all ties between mother and child are severed at this point, the young is expected to fend for his or herself.
But her first husband would not have it. And no amount of influence on her part could convince the man that her role as parent was done.
"Earth's society doesn't work that way," he had told her firmly.
While the concept was as alien to her as she physiologically was to her husband, she gave in. That was her burden for living on Earth, her continued duration as a mother was the price she must pay for choosing a human as a mate.
For a time she had no trouble with the arrangement. Until her husband passed away and she required a new provider and host.
When her kind found a new mate, any children from the first coupling would have been eaten by the mother (or in certain cases father) to enable a smooth integration. But she found herself torn between her genetic predisposition and this unforseen desire to have her child survive.
She blames the influence her first husband had on her and how she had grown soft and weak in his company. She decided to compromise by sending her son to live in the guest house, out of sight but not completely out of mind.
She should have ignored the unnatural urges of concern for her son. Perhaps if she had, he wouldn’t be what he was now.
By her kind’s standards her son should be put down given his condition. No one can know of their secret. He was a liability to her and to the life she had built. Such threats are normally dealt with swiftly and without mercy.
However, she doesn’t think she can bring herself to kill her first and only child, which was a level of maternal devotion unheard of from her ancestor's opinion.
She still considered him her son, though without affection and without disdain.
She denies this, naturally. Insisting that taking his life would be an act of kindness, that he has to live with the consequences of his mistakes, learn from his errors and other such character-building nonsense his real father might have said.
And so, she let him live, let him leave under the excuse of transferring to an academy in some foreign country. She didn’t offer to help him regain his former luster but she didn’t deny him access to his funds or his father’s equipment either.
A bad mother, indeed!
These humans don’t know what they’re talking about.