About Mothers

About mothers. We all have them, most of us are them. We are all influenced by them. Some of us have had more than one mother figure in our lives. Their words come back to us, sometimes at the right moment to help us, sometimes at the wrong moment to temper our joy with words of caution. Most mothers mean well, and they do the best they can with what they have and who they are. Sometimes we just don’t know what the right thing to do or say is, but we don’t want to let on! Aren’t we supposed to have all the answers and know everything? Protection of our babies (no matter how old they are!) and their happiness is a driving force for us. Sometimes we want so badly for them to be happy that we lose sight of the fact that we all need to be unhappy sometimes. How else will we appreciate happiness if we are occasionally not? Even though we hate to see our children unhappy, we must allow them to have their struggles, make mistakes, fall and get up on their own. Among the most difficult things for a mother to do is standing by and watch things go as they will without interference. We all had to figure life out as we went along, and of course we have the desire to spare our children the pain of failure, but if our mothers had stepped in all the time we would not have learned all we needed to know to survive all that life throws at us. The best gift my mother gave me was the ability to be independent, to think, assess and act to resolve problems in my own way. Without being able to practice those skills as I grew into adulthood, I can’t imagine how I would have made it this far in life. Thanks Mom!