Whether it’s a silent plea or a loud cry with tears streaming down your face, every Mom eventually asks: “Will I survive Motherhood?”
Sometimes you are tired and out of patience. Your hair could grease a wheel and kids are going in different directions. These are the moments your back hits the wall and you sink into a lump on the floor wondering if you can go on to face another diaper or carpool.
Will you survive? There are three things every mother accepts to survive.
First, you accept for the rest of your life you will wonder if you did motherhood correctly. There is no grade at the end of the parenting term. No exams, no comments from instructors, and no gold stars for all your work and decisions. There is no finish line to cross. However, stop and look around, mothers are all in the race together. Their uniform of macaroni necklaces and bottomless purses are dead giveaways.
Second, there is “the motherhood epiphany”. It’s the moment you realize you are the mother, the authority on your children, and the one standing guard ready to pounce. You now understand that no book, doctor, Grandparent or stranger knows what is best for your children. And you are not afraid to say so.
Third, you realize there is no perfect mother. Every mother makes mistakes and picks up the diaper bag to face another day. A perfectly kept home doesn’t exist either. The bottom of your kitchen sink and laundry basket won’t be seen again until the kids go to college.
Older, more experienced mothers know you will survive. When they smile at you and your kids in the grocery store, or glance your way at a restaurant it is an understanding and knowledge of how wonderful it all is. They know how much work it is and yet they look back at it all and smile.
Being a mother is the hardest, most complicated, beautiful, wonderful and challenging thing in the world. Other Mothers know you will survive it all; and somehow you know you will too.
