Mother knows best is a universally acknowledged truth declaring that you should listen to your mother and take her advice, because she knows best. However, the people that that phrase is usually aimed at- children and teenagers- are the ones who ignore or go against it most stubbornly. Robert Cormier’s short story “The Moustache” is a perfect example of this, and why we should all listen be listening to our mothers.
In “The Moustache”, Mike is going on a trip to visit his ailing grandmother, who has problems with her memory due to illness. Mike’s mother is checking his appearance before he goes and tells him that at seventeen years old he “has no business wearing a moustache”. However, even though it’s costing him money (he looks older and so must pay the adult fee for the cinema), Mike only says that he’s thinking about shaving it off to placate his mother, ignoring her advice even when she says that “your grandmother probably won’t even recognize you”. After she says this Mike sees “a shadow fall across her face”, implying that 1. the thought of it makes his mother sad, and 2. he knows it, and by the instinct of one who has a mother he wants to fix it. But even then, his teenage drive for autonomy and independence wins out, and he does not shave the moustache.
Then, he leaves for the nursing home where his grandmother stays, and when they see each other, the grandmother mistakes Mike for her own husband, his grandfather. She then proceeds to speak, very emotionally, about her life with her husband and her regret at being unable to apologize for something, and then apologizes for it to Mike, who she still thinks is her husband.
As you may be able to imagine, being mistaken by a close relative for their passed partner, listening to them reminisce about their life together, and apologize for something they did to that partner, made Mike deeply uncomfortable and scared. When he finally gets back home, he tells his mom all the good things- that his grandmother had looked good and healthy and called him Mike, but leaves out what he really wants to say: “you and Dad really love each other, don’t you? I mean– there’s nothing to forgive between you, is there?”. This worry about his parent’s relationship stems from his grandmother’s woes about her own, and like any child who’s grown up in a happy, healthy home with both parents, his worry of how it might affect him.
In the end, Mike does shave off his moustache, but his questions about his parents’ relationship remain. Questions this big aren’t forgotten easily, and presumably it will nag at him for some time, always in the back of his brain. But if he’d shaved off his moustache like his mother said to, his grandmother would probably not have mistaken him for her husband and scared him so, and he wouldn’t have to put up with those worries about his parents’ relationhip in the back of his head. If only he’d listened to his mother, he’d probably have felt a lot better about the visit, which would have prevented the worries plaguing him now, showing that we should all be listening to our mothers because their advice is invaluable.