May 10 is Mother’s Day, when the world takes a day to reflect on the parent who spearheaded our existence. Whether for good or bad, we all have a mother who produced us cell by cell for roughly nine months, and after that we grew our individual history with guidance from adults and others in our age group. Some of us become parents and carry on the circle of how human population continues on our planet.
Others may not have the privilege of motherhood in the traditional sense. There is adoption and surrogacy, but there are also those who simply never have the experiences that others take for granted. These are the ones who feel out of place on Mother’s Day.
We see how other parents tend their children. We watch social media and view the steppingstones in a child’s life. Naturally we know about what mothers endure after childbirth, such as post-partum depression, exhaustion, bodily alterations from breastfeeding and the like. As children grow, mothers tend the school lunches and wardrobes, oversee homework and act as the taxi service to sports practice. Teens still need shuttling to sports practice, and they start dating, adding to a mother’s concerns.
But one day a year these kids of various ages may go out for brunch with their mothers, or present handmade gifts or flowers.
Some of us older children pay a visit to a gravesite.
And a few more simply don’t bother, for a variety of reasons.
Nor all mothers are great parents, but we all would not be actively doing anything at this moment if somebody didn’t walk the path to bringing us with hearty cries into the universe. Sure there are truly bad mothers (and fathers whose day is coming up as well), but whether our mothers are still part of our active lives or not, they can never truly be erased from memory.
Whether you are a mother or never have been, this is the day to at least say, “This is the day to remember mothers.”
Even mothers who did not give you life have contributed much to this world. In addition to raising children, some women invented, wrote novels, worked battlefields or took over men’s jobs (a large contribution in World War II). The multi-tasker mothers of the past two centuries have brought us into a modern world in which possibilities for women and men alike have never been greater. And for the longest time, they changed cloth diapers.
So here’s to mothers. Where would we be without them?
Susan's Scribblings the Blog 