My parents divorced when I was younger and I ended up living with my mom after because my dad's job made him move two hours away. My brother eventually went on to live with my dad, so it was just my mom and me for most of my younger years. My mom and I have always had a good relationship. I always thought of her as my best friend because I felt like I could tell her anything and it was almost always just the two of us.
I remember while growing up that some of my friend's parents judged my mom for being a single parent. They thought that just because it was my mom and I that meant that I was going to get into trouble and be a bad influence on their kids, so I wasn't able to go to some of my friends' houses because of it. I wasn't a "bad" kid though. I often chose to stay home and read a book or watch a movie with my mom rather than go and hang out with my friends.
My mom and I had a thing where every Sunday we would order something in, like Chinese take-out or pizza, and would watch movies on TV all day. My friends always thought it was weird that I chose to hang out with my mom, but I thought it was the coolest thing. I didn't understand why everyone didn't hang out with their parents more or tell them the things going on in their lives.
I started watching "Gilmore Girls" every day after school on ABC Family when I was about in fifth grade. Rory was a character I found myself relating too and I had never seen that before. Finally, there was a girl on TV who loved to read books as much, maybe more, than I did and she was best friends with her mom! It felt like I was watching my life unfold on TV for an hour after school—except she had rich grandparents, an uninvolved dad, and more boyfriends than I had, but still, she was like me. Lorelai and my mom are very similar too; both incredibly outgoing, independent, former rebels, who actively tried to not raise their children like their mothers did. Lorelai and Rory were like us, and my mom and I loved the show because of it.
I finally didn't feel like I was weird anymore. There was proof that there had to be other girls that felt the same way I did about my mom and it was being shown on one of the most popular shows of the time.
When the "Gilmore Girls" reboot was announced, my mom and I were thrilled. We texted about it constantly and kept each other updated on the news that we heard and our theories as to what we thought would happen. When it finally premiered, while we weren't happy with everything that happened in it, it still felt like we were catching up with old friends. "Gilmore Girls" will always be a show my mom and I can watch together and joke about no matter how many times we've seen each episode.
