Another Mother’s Day has come and gone! I had a nice day myself – we took the kids to see Thomas at Heritage Park in the morning, then we ditched them with Grandma and Grandpa and went golfing with my husband in the afternoon. It was the perfect mix of time with the kids and time away from the kids…
I spent the day before Mother’s day at an event put on by MomCafe. It was a fundraising event for a Calgary mom whose son has a very acute form of MS called Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis. The last 15 months for this family have been a series of heartbreaking setbacks and smaller yet joyful triumphs. Please take the time to check out their blog, Evan’s Journey Back to Life. I guarantee you will forget all the irritating things your kids did to you today and be thankful they are healthy enough to annoy you!
The speaker at this event was Leslie Horton of Global TV, who has a 3 year old daughter. She made me laugh out loud when she said her daughter is 3 going on 13 and had a fit one day because mommy didn’t fix her hair right… It seems 3 year old girls are all the same. Who knew!
The theme of the MomCafe was ‘Moms Supporting Moms’ and she helped reiterate this by saying we moms have to help prop each other up because being a mom is hard.
Thank you! Yes, it can be a total b***h in fact! And while we all do the best we can for our kids and our families, do we do the best we can for each other? Do you help prop up your other mom friends when they need it? I think the answer here is mostly yes.
The first year I was a mother, I spent a good part of it in shock. I was in shock because now I was no longer number 1. My sleep was irrelevant. I felt irrelevant. I was lucky, however, because I had other mom friends who helped me feel less alone and eventually, more relevant 🙂 They propped me up.
When my daughter started preschool, I met more moms with kids the same age. It felt good to able to commiserate with another mother about our children’s eating habits – she was worried her daughter wasn’t eating right because she refused most foods. I told her about my daughter who, at the same age, ate only yogurt and peas; this made her feel better. I was able to prop her up.
It can be hard to prop each other up sometimes. There is always a mom that is skinnier, or prettier, or richer, or just more organized. And while we really just want to hate her, we should prop her up too because maybe she has had multiple miscarriages or dealt with a straying spouse, or has an illness. We never know the personal challenges others are going through. She needs us too.
So in the aftermath of another Mother’s day, remember: Prop each other up! Share information! Commiserate! Sympathize! Help a mom, because you will be helped by a mom in turn.
Cheers!
Voula
