The day after holidays like Mother’s Day is always interesting. Mothers get bombarded with gifts and love and affection. Family members wanting to do anything and everything for mom just to show her how much we appreciate all that she does for us. Well, ladies, the day isn’t over.
You need to know that you do so much for each and every family member every day. And we don’t go without recognizing it. We may not say it or show it directly, but we truly are grateful for all that you do for us.
Yesterday I was loving all the many things said on Instagram about mothers and I loved this from Elle Rowley, of Solly Baby Wrap, “Motherhood has a way of exposing our shortcomings in an almost unrelenting way at times, but you’re doing better than you think you are. So even if your little ones are total hellions today and you lose your patience more than once, take a minute and pat yourself on the back for just being there and loving them anyway.”
Each and every day you do it all, without being asked,without a celebration to be had, and you have a smile on your face. I understand though that it’s difficult. Kids screaming, your hair being pulled, you feel like you’re not being heard, but still you work hard and do all that you can to make our families what they are. AMAZING!!!
Without mothers we would be nowhere. I read an article in the local newspaper saying,
“Nearly a hundred years of research has repeatedly confirmed what the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development concluded in 2003: “Maternal sensitivity” is the strongest and most consistent predictor of a child’s development. And that holds true whether a child spends most of the day in day care or at home with his mother. Her emotional availability to her child, her ability to respond positively, without being overly intrusive, lays the foundation for children’s social-emotional health and cognitive development for the rest of their lives.”
“Even a 2-day-old infant can recognize the voice and face of his mother. Through this evidently hard-wired connection, a child learns how to relate to all other human beings. As three eminent psychiatrists from Berkeley described, “Whether they realize it or not, mothers use the universal signs of emotion to teach their babies about the world ….” That emotional connection gives them “a common language” years before a child learns to speak.”
“What mothers themselves don’t often realize is that in very ordinary interactions — feeding, bathing, clothing, changing diapers, playing — their natural, sensitive responses shape the brain of their child, building connections that form the “internal working model” for understanding all other relationships. And somehow she does this without even knowing — perceiving needs through fine-tuned inputs from her child, matching herself to their emotional state, then providing just the right amount of stimulation needed for the child’s development.”
“In a hundred thousand small acts of care she literally forms the core of a child’s sense of worth and capacity. In spite of the popular belief that power is wielded through a “public voice,” it is the private voice of a mother that shapes a generation.”
Jenet Erickson ended the article amazingly by saying,
“Mother’s Day can be painful because it seems to remind us of the ways we fall short of the “ideal” — whether that means not being able to have the children we yearn for or not being able to care well enough for the ones we have. But Mother’s Day is not a celebration of the ideal. It is a celebration of reality — mothers all over the world and throughout time have given something no one else could do in the same way. The best thing we can do on Mother’s Day is to strengthen women in doing what they alone can do so well.”
We love you mothers and are truly grateful for all that you do to help our children grow and develop. What you’re doing is enough. So keep it up!