It's a conflicted attitude that we have in this country towards mothers.
On the one hand, we love to critique mothering. We watch with the same curiosity that we have as we slow down to rubberneck at an accident. We observe the tiger mother, the helciopter mother, the stage mother -- the list goes on -- all with horrified fascination, hoping that we aren't making the same obvious mistakes.
On the other hand, we revere our mothers, setting aside this day to honor them, and even throwing them in there as a symbol of patriotism, up there with apple pie.
Either way, it's a bit of pressure. Either we're totally mucking up our children's lives with some approach that others think foolish. Or we're held to some impossible standard of perfection and goodness. Yikes.
Today, though, let's put that aside and focus on what mothers have done right. If you are a mother, whether a new one or a seasoned one, whether you hold your babe in your arms, hear their shouts from the back yard, or hope for a phone call from afar, picture those children that you have nurtured.
Really take a minute, close your eyes, and think of each of them, one at a time. Run a little slide show in your head. Think of their virtues, their strengths, the beauty that they have added to your lives.
Incredible, isn't it?
Let's let the rest go and, even though we may only be responsible for some small part of those wonderful people whose lives we hold so dear, let's revel in all that has gone right, in all the joy and wonder that they have given us.
And let's consider our own mothers. Despite their own imperfections, fatigue, and mistakes -- not to mention the mounds of laundry that constantly formed and re-formed -- they have gotten us this far. No small accomplishment, to be sure.
So today, celebrate, be happy. . .
And ignore that pile of laundry in the corner.
Happy Mother's Day!
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