Marvelous Mothers Series

This is a series I’ve been thinking about…obsessing about…stewing about for a good long while. I mean years of obsession and stewing. Growing up I was never one to think about motherhood. I grew up with an amazing momma, but my younger sister was the one who was constantly dragging her dolls around and talking about how she wanted to have 12 kids someday.

Maybe I didn’t think about having kids because I was more concerned with climbing trees and jumping off the swing trying to set a new swing jumping world record. Or maybe it was due to being the oldest to five siblings and I’ve had my innate motherhood instinct in place since the age of 2. Either way, the priorities for my future were not immediately family-oriented.

Fast forward to the first 2 years of marriage and I began to feel the itch of motherhood. By then, though, I knew I had health issues and would need to go through infertility procedures to ever have the ability to conceive.

Thankfully, the miracle of medical intervention enabled me to conceive and become a mother. BUT…motherbood is something I was able to experience long before having my own children.

The act of mothering is not isolated to a mother and a child. Teachers, social workers, neighbors, aunts…any woman has the ability to experience motherhood and be a mother figure in someone’s life. Enriching a little person’s life in one way or another is just the tip of the motherhood iceberg.

In the past, when asked what I do for a living, I have found myself saying “oh, I’m just a mom”…or “I stay at home with my children”. And fortunately, most of the time when I unknowingly belittled my motherhood, I would receive praise back for being a stay-at-home mom. I would downplay being a stay-at-home mom because being a stay-at-home parent is not as highly praised as it was 50 years ago. Quite often, stay-at-home parents are looked down on. The new supermom is considered someone who works tirelessly outside of the home and still comes home to her children to help with school projects and dinner prep.

Well, guess what? There is NO such thing as one type of motherhood being more precious than the other. Motherhood is precious in every form. Mothers work, some because they have to; some work because they want to and while they love being a mom, their heart is just as tied to their career.

SO…in an effort to celebrate ALL types of women who show motherhood, I am going to be publishing a monthly post highlighting women who, I think, shows exceptional motherhood. So, stay tuned! Who knows, maybe I will be asking one of you to be my example of motherhood one month.