Kids Health Notes

What it means to be a Mom…

by Grace on May 11th, 2008

Three years after being a first-time mom, and two kids later, here I am again. About to celebrate another mother’s day, about to be celebrated as a mother.

I was browsing through my first b5media blog (it’s my 2nd anniversary yonder as a blogger… actually I missed it for a couple of days already! - I’ve been too busy). Anyway, back to my browsing… I came across one of my first posts and it was about my random thoughts as a mother. I want to share them with you, because as I read it again, I realize I haven’t much changed. How I felt then as a first time mom, I still feel now with two kids… only the feeling has grown stronger.

Two years ago, on May 12, 2006, I wrote – 

After I gave birth to our daughter, at that critical post-partum point when the fatigue has exhausted all strength, I saw a visibly pregnant neighbor playing with her two toddlers. Three kids, I thought. WOW. How can she handle being pregnant and taking care of two other young children? I can’t even manage one, let alone get through these first months! And then I remembered my own mom, who had four children one after another… Right there I realized - this is what it means to be a mother. You manage. You cope. You survive. Because you love your children, no matter how many there are, you love each of them. You will do your best for them, and give them everything you have, and more, even when it feels like there’s nothing to give and you want to give up and live your own life just for you. You still give, because you’re a mom.

Now, a year after, I can look back at those first few months with a smile. I smile because it was difficult, a lot of adjustments, sure. Often I felt inadequate, alone, unprepared. Still I smile. Because it was all worth it. And I love my daughter with all my heart. And I will do it again for the next child, and the next, and the next, no matter how many we’d have. Because I’m a mom. (Now- and I do. I couldn’t imagine I can love another child as much as my first. But I do).

It’s mother’s day again this Sunday. The TV and print ads are once more enticing us to shop for a mother’s day gift. My husband was asking me what I’d like to do for mother’s day, what I’d like to have. And I really don’t know. I’m not about to pass up on any gift of course, that he wants to give, but is there really anything I want? What gift is there to “measure” a thanks for being a mom? Nothing material, really. I have it here, with me, right now. Being a mom is a gift in itself. That I matured as a woman, and see the world differently because I have a child (now- children). That life ahead has greater meaning and purpose because I am raising a child of great destiny. That I am given such an amazing gift in the life of our child, who loves me. This is my reward.

So happy mother’s day to all of us moms. And to all our own mothers and sisters. We’ve done well, and great is our reward.

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POSTED IN: Children's Health, Family and Home, Healthy parenting