Good morning! Happy Mother’s Day! I wanted to take a few minutes today and share some personal thoughts about Mother’s Day and what it means to me. Growing up, the two primary influences in my life were my mother and my grandmother. I never knew my father and many of my friends growing up were either in the same boat as I; or they saw their fathers very rarely.
While I know today is Mother’s Day and a day that we honor and celebrate our mothers, grandmothers and more – I wanted to take a moment to be grateful that as a mother, my daughter has a great relationship with her father. She benefits from having both of us as influences in her life – along with her three grandmothers, aunts, uncles and the beloved cousins that she adores.
My sister-in-law is a single parent and her sons’ relationships with their fathers have been hard on them as well as on her. Fortunately, perseverance has won out and my oldest nephew has bonded with his father and looks forward to the weekends he spends with him. My sister-in-law however does have a hard burden – I’ve tried to show my appreciation for the situation over the years by always sending her flowers on Mother’s Day.
I knew some people who thought that was odd, after all she’s a sister-in-law and not my mother – but last year – a very good friend gave me a great card that talked about the honored friendships between mothers. She included a gift card for a couple of cups of coffee at the local Starbuck’s with it.
The Honored Mothers
The card filled me with warmth and as often as I gave gifts to the other mothers in my life; I’ve rarely experienced the reciprocation. At the same time, last year, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law got together and gave me a charm for my charm bracelet that says The Heart Remembers. On the back is an inscription that simply says Nan. Nan was my grandmother.
You see Mother’s Day, to me, is not about just my mother or for me as a mother – it’s about all mothers. It’s about my neighbor with her three children, it’s about my friend with her two, it’s about my sister with her two sons and it’s about the lady I talk to at the park with her four children. Mother’s Day is about my mother, my mother-in-law, my step-mother-in-law and my grandmother, my husband’s grandmother and every other mother that touches our lives in some way.
Take the Opportunity
Mother’s Day is a wonderful time to take the opportunity to honor all of these women and not just for our children and husbands to do the honoring – but for us as a sisterhood of women to honor each other. To show the respect, the admiration and the love we feel for the women in our lives who have helped to shape us, guide us and who provide us with friendship and inspiration.
So this blog is in honor of all the mothers in my life – both the other writers here at Families.com, the members and the readers. Happy Mother’s Day to you – may you enjoy a day of bountiful love, kindness and respect. I want to thank you for being mothers, I want to thank you for taking the time and I want to thank you for being a part of my life.
I am honored to be a part of yours.
Happy Mother’s Day!