My thoughts on Motherhood and Mother’s Day
I used to hate it when people would wish me a happy mother’s day before I was a mom, but it wasn’t because I was frustrated by our inability to conceive. Mother’s day was still about celebrating my own mother. I was never offended or hurt by the holiday and I was annoyed when my ward avoided talking about moms on mother’s day. Despite the fact that I wanted to be a mother more than anything else, on mother’s day I wanted to celebrate the wonderful mothers in my life. Families are central to the Lord’s plan and avoiding talking about mothers on mother’s day seems wrong to me.
People like to say “every woman is a mother, in her own way.†Is that really comforting to anyone? It wasn’t to me and now that I am a mother, I’m still annoyed with that phrase. Motherhood makes you have to be willing to give up everything else in your life
and put someone else first. The title of mom is earned in the countless nights of lost sleep spent comforting and cleaning up after a puking child or calming a screaming baby. It’s earned on the trip to the grocery store when all the children are hungry and cranky. It’s earned on those impossible days where you find yourself scrubbing marker off of your appliances and poo out of your carpet. It’s earned by turning over your entire life to someone who might descend into a fit of crying if his or her toast isn’t cut the right way. It’s earned when you give up your social life almost completely and every hobby and interest because the care of your children is more important to you. I earned that title and when you give it away for merely being born female, you diminish the value of it.
After I became a mother, I looked forward to Mother’s Day with great anticipation. It’s the one day when the world (or maybe just the US, I don’t know) stops and recognizes the value of mothers.
I love being a mother. It’s the most rewarding and wonderful thing in the world. I embrace every sacrifice willingly because to draws my heart closer to my cherished little ones and I thank my Father in Heaven for blessing me so abundantly with such wonderful, smart, attractive, and loving children.
This was my favorite mothers day ever! I love being celebrated. I think it gains more meaning the more effort you put into being a great mom. You know, before I had these cuties in my life, being wished a happy mother’s day didn’t mean anything to me. When they said things like “Every woman is a mother in her own way.” I always thought of Edna before she had the family she has now. One Mother’s Day, she expressed how the day was always accompanied by sadness and she usually skipped church. She really appreciated it one Sunday when Savannah gave her a flower and told her she was like a mother for her. I would say, though the well wishing of mothers day might be given to all women, it’s celebration in the heart differs greatly between women. It isn’t a day that belongs to all women, because some women don’t represent the virtues of motherhood. Some women who aren’t yet mothers definitely represent those virtues.
My favorite quote of the day, “Every day is mother’s day!” Kathleen, you are so ideal. You really put your whole self into being really amazing for your family every day. You never seem to say anything in the air of resentment, it’s always in love and gratitude. Mothers Day is magnified in (& by) you. You set your light on a hill. (High fives ;)