A few months back as a pregnant Natalie Portman was accepting her best actress Oscar, she said that while she appreciated her job as an actress, motherhood was now her most important job. Amen, sista!
While all mothers have many roles and wear many hats, in the end great mothers know that job one is always being Mommy. Mothers work hard at their money-earning jobs, but they do their best work in the trenches of day to day child rearing. Motherhood is a battle, a battle fought in your heart. We fight with ourselves over what's best for our kids. We battle guilt. We battle illness. We fight for every spare minute in a 24 hour day. We negotiate with hostile little dictators who want to argue about everything from what color Popsicle they've been given to what time their curfew should be. During peacetime we're always wondering when the next bomb will drop and always hoping it will just require terror levels to be at yellow and not red. Our vehicles are minivans instead of tanks. We spend our leave doing yoga and drinking chardonnay.
Moms sometimes can't cook. Sometimes they aren't great house keepers. Sometimes they have to be both mom and dad. Sometimes they'd rather be anywhere else but with their kids. But always, always, always great moms find balance in their busy lives. We don't let our children's demands overshadow our personal needs, and we always give our children our best.
Happy Mother's Day to my fellow soldiers in the army of mamas. May you always fight bravely and with lots of friends by your side. When your children are all grown and the battle is won, may you retire those baby wipes and car seats with great pride knowing that you have served your country well. While you'll always be a mama, maybe being a mama won't always be a battle.
1 comment:
Well said!
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