Why Just One Day a Year?

What’s up with this one day of the year celebration for mothers? Shouldn’t we celebrate our mothers every day of the year, if for no other reason than they gave birth to us? Listen, I was there for all three births of my sons. It’s not called labor for nothing—I often wonder if women really new ahead of time the pain and strain to their body that child birth is if they’d go ahead and get pregnant anyway.

What's amazing to me is that many women, after going through the stress, inconvenience, and pain of pregnancy and childbirth, choose to have more babies. After the first child, most men would rush right out to the nearest clinic and get themselves snipped. “Ain’t no way this is going to happen again!” most of us guys would whine.

My own mother came as near to death as one can get during childbirth when I was born (I was a trouble maker right from the get go—I was also just an ounce under 10 lbs, which I’m sure didn’t make mom feel any better). I was a placenta previa and my mom almost hemorrhaged to death bringing me into this world. Both of her doctors told her it was a power beyond theirs that saved us both.

If that isn’t enough of a reason to pay tribute to my mother every day of the year, she also, along with dad of course, raised 4 very rowdy, rebellious, stubborn boys. Believe me, as I think back on some of the things my brothers and I did, some of the pranks, mischief, and trouble we got into, my mom deserves a medal, maybe even a statue.

I know there must be many other good mothers out there who also deserve accolades for the sacrifices, prayers, and worrying they did over their children, trying to instill in them and guide them down the paths of virtue, morality, honor, etc., as their they grew to adulthood.

Some mothers have to do this alone, without help from their children’s father. Either through divorce, abandonment, whatever, they’re left trying to not only raise their children to be good and decent, but they’re left doing it while they also struggle to put food on the table, clothes on their children’s backs, and shelter over their heads, sometimes working two jobs to accomplish this. They ask for no handouts, no acknowledgement, or rewards from society. For them their reward is watching the fruits of their labor come to fruition--their children grow up to be good and decent human beings.

Because of the economic downturn, many mothers who are now grandmothers and great grandmothers continue to give and sacrifice for their children. They keep their grandkids and great grandkids for free while the children’s mother and/or father work, helping them save a little money by not having to pay for daycare.

Many mothers don’t even like the holiday that’s set aside for them. In their words, “Why should I get acknowledgement for something I’m supposed to do?”

Other’s feel like, “Hey, if you can’t appreciate the things I do for you every day of the year don’t insult me with a once a year celebration.”

Yet for others, the Mothers’ Day holiday makes them feel incompetent, inferior, and failures as they sit in church and hear talks from people speaking of their perfect, super moms, who did everything right in raising them.

So why do we only celebrate mothers just once a year? It seems to me that most of us should celebrate them, honor them, and show our appreciation for all they have and do for us every day of the year. And the best way we can do this is to be the adults they hoped and prayed we’d turn out to be.

So to all the mothers in the world, I salute you.

And mom, I love you.