Dear Mom,
Thank you.
I know those two words are ones you don’t hear often enough, so I want to say them again:
Thank you.
Thank you for all you do. Thank you for the seen and especially the unseen acts of love and service you do for your family each and every day. I may not know your exact situation. Perhaps you are the mother of little ones. Maybe you are going it alone. Maybe your kids are tweens or teens or even out of the house at this point. Maybe you work outside the home. Maybe your full-time job is running the household. I don’t need to know the details to know that you haven’t heard enough thank yous.
The thing about this motherhood gig is that as different as our individual stories may be, when you get down to it, we are all in this together. While our experiences may not be precisely the same, we share common ground. And that’s why today I want you to know that those long hours and hard efforts you put into raising and caring for your family have not gone unnoticed or unappreciated. Motherhood can be a thankless job, but the payoff is greater than any monetary reward we could ever receive. And, so again, I say thank you.
Thank you for loving your kids well.
Thank you for all the late night feedings, while they were babies.
Thank you for the endless amounts of diapers you have changed through the years.
Thank you for the nose wipes and the bottom wipes.
Thank you for the hair fixes.
Thank you for making sure their faces were clean after meals, even if that meant using your mom saliva to remove the debris.
Thank you for saying “no” and teaching them boundaries.
Thank you for dropping them off at their first day of school with confidence, even if you shed a few tears in the car.
Thank you for letting them play outside and get dirty.
Thank you for the heaps of laundry you have done and the endless amounts of socks you have paired up.
Thank you for the meals you have prepared, even if more of them than you’d like to admit have come in the form of peanut butter and jelly.
Thank you for vacuuming and dusting and sweeping. Repeatedly.
Thank you for cleaning the toilets. (Hey, somebody has to do it.)
Thank you for every encouraging word you’ve given.
Thank you for every kiss you’ve given an ouchie.
Thank you for learning the names of their friends.
Thank you for trusting them to go to the school dance.
Thank you for tucking them into bed.
Thank you for knowing when to hold on and when to let go.
Thank you for being interruptible, even if those interruptions came at a less-than-ideal times.
Thank you for being your child’s advocate.
Thank you for teaching them to speak up for themselves.
Thank you for tickling them.
Thank you for loving them enough to discipline them.
Thank you for each kiss, each cuddle, each lullaby and each prayer you have whispered over them.
And thank you for the countless sacrificial acts you will do for them throughout the rest of your life.
Will they ever know the full magnitude of your love for them? Perhaps not, though maybe they will get a glimpse of it when they have kids of their own. But, we don’t do this motherhood thing for the gratitude or the payment. We do it because of love. And what greater gift is there than that?
So, dear mom, please know that you are appreciated and that you are important. You are needed and what you do is vital. Don’t ever forget that even as you search out those missing socks and put the finishing touches on the pb&j.
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{This article first appeared in The Family Magazine of Michiana. Photo credit @iStock.com/yaruta.}
