I love my mom. I love her a lot.
More than anyone in this world, probably, but she is not my best friend. She is my mom. Her role as a mother is not to be my best friend, but a parental figure in my life.
It is not my mom's job to be my best friend.
My mom's job is to tell me the truth when I don't want to hear it. She is here in my life to be a guiding light, but not to sugar coat or hide the truth because of fear that she will hurt my feelings. She is the first one to admit that I did something wrong and teaches me to own up to my actions.
Just because my mom and I aren't friends doesn't mean that we don't get along or that we don't love each other.
There are no amount of words that can explain how much I love my mom. She just doesn't hold the title as my "BFF." She is (or at least was when I was younger) an enforcer of rules. She taught me that with every action there is a consequence... Good or bad. How can my mom be my best friend and be my mom at the same time? If we were BFF's, I wouldn't take her seriously.
I don't want to be best friends with my mom.
I want to have a mother-daughter relationship, instead. She has been the one who provides me with protection and belonging, something that isn't a BFF's job. My mom never cared that she wasn't the "cool mom," even though I think she's pretty fabulous.
I would rather have a mom who is a great parent who has expectations of me, than a mom who thinks of me as a friend.