When I was a kid, I was kind of a brat. Whenever Mother's Day came around, I would be like "Okay, this is great, but when do we have Kid's Day?!" To which my mother would answer "Every day is Kid's Day."
Back then, I didn't buy it. I wanted my special day darn it. But the older I got, the more I've realized that it's true; every day is Kid's Day.
So this weekend, as I was celebrating Mother's Day and thinking about how much I owe to my own mother, it struck me that instead of celebrating Mom once a year for everything she does on a daily basis, we should be celebrating her every day. God knows she does enough in 24 hours to deserve that.
Because moms are great.
In the beginning, they carried us inside of them, being careful of what they ate and what they did because they had a life inside of them that they considered more important than their own. They then went through the excruciatingly painful process of birth, only to be gifted with us, babies that would continue to need them just as much, if not more, as we did for the last nine months.
And as we grew, Mom was there every step of the way.
She was there when we cried and demanded things before we ever wielded the power of language, she sacrificed her own sleep and probably her own sanity to make sure we had everything we needed, and she changed innumerable diapers. Seriously.
Then we grew up a little, and she kissed every owwie, regardless of how big or small. She packed our lunches, read us bedtime stories, and chased the monsters out of our closets.
She was there when we graduated from kindergarten, and she was there when we morphed from cute little kids into nightmarish preteens. She was there through each phase we went to, desperately trying to discover who we were, and she loved every version of us that, at the time, we were sure was the right one.
She watched as we lost games and fell in and out of love with various sports and hobbies, and she waved at us the first time we drove away from the house just moments after turning sixteen. She was there to listen and enthuse when we fell in love the first time, and she was there to hold us when we came back home, defeated and brokenhearted, learning that love can hurt, but also remembering that there has always been one love that has never hurt us.
She cries just a little every time we leave to go back to college or back to our adult lives, but she still manages to smile, because as selfless as she has been with us since the day we were created, she's still selfless enough to let us know that it's okay to go out and live our own lives, and that she'll always be there when we need to come home.
Mom has been there every step, and sometimes that wasn't easy. No matter where your mom may be, and no matter how old you get, remember to thank your mom, not just on Mother's Day, but every single day that you think about how much she has done for you every day for as long as you can remember.
