Today is one of my favorite days and not because it's a Hallmark holiday added to the list of so many other "holidays." I genuinely embrace the sentiment of today and am grateful for a day that reminds me to say the thank-yous to the amazing women who keep me inspired to do better than just put one foot in front of the other.
When I think about the women in my life today, it's not just the other mothers that I want to thank. You don't have to be a mom to be mothering, caring, loving, supportive, tough, kind and part of someones village. You do, however, have to have the patience of saint to tolerate all the kid and parenting stories that you could otherwise live without. So for me, today honors those women, in addition to my fellow moms.
Parenting is much like a team sport and perhaps it's more so that than the product of a village. On the team, you have people who help you play to your strengths and those who force you to acknowledge your weaknesses. There are those who have your back and those who leave you to fend for yourself, mostly because they know you can. Just you don't know you can. And as we have heard, felt, experienced (cue the brilliant Similac video https://youtu.be/Me9yrREXOj4) parenting is a competitive sport. Why us women think keeping other women down is sport is absurd, but Mommy Wars is the parenting version of Mean Girls.
But today, on Mother's Day, it's the one out of 365 days when we have a level playing field. Today is the day when every player gets a ribbon (gasp! insert judgement about whether or not all participants should receive prizes even if they don't win). See how easy it is to judge EVERYTHING? Well let's not. For this one day.
Ladies, we can make it through one day when we only acknowledge that every single parent out there has had sleepless nights, faced tantrums, cried over spilled breast milk, not been able to get a stroller to collapse or maybe not been able to get a car seat out of a car, peed with a child on your lap, forgotten a wallet and not realized until the grocery store cashier tells you what you owe, faced a diaper blow-out in public and kissed boo boos among many, many, so so many other things.
And for those who aren't parents but are part of the team, today is the day when I give thanks to you for keeping me honest and keeping it real. For reminding me of all the declarative statements I made about parenting before becoming a parent. For not allowing me to ramble (too much) about my kids, but for indulging me when you know I need to talk, share, brag, vent. For giving me advice woman to woman and reminding me that who I am in any relationship is the same person I should be in my role as a mom.
Happy Mother's Day!
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