A List For My Children, On Mother’s Day.

Understand that I am your Mother. I will never hold the place of friend while you are growing up.

I am human and I make mistakes, but I eat my vegetables and so should you.

I love you beyond anything I have ever known and I will fight for you, but I will not lie for you or buy you out of scrapes.

I will call you out when you haven’t done your best, because I know you’re worthy and so very full of potential. You are a wonder and unique in this world. When you do not do your best, you cheat yourself above all others.

My past is mine; I will not lay it on your future. Yours is a clean slate, and you should follow your heart.                 

I do not command respect; I have earned it with every late night filled with worry, with every wipe of a tear from your faces, with every diaper change and so much more.

Each time you mutter under your breath as you walk away, or roll your eyes, or think I don’t get it, is yet another battle scar that I wear well, and I find worth wearing.

Each accomplishment is your own, and I revel in it with you. I applaud the loudest because I know how you worked hard. No one will ever revel in your glory more.

No matter what the future holds, I will always be there for you, as long as God graces me to be here.                                             

Finally, for Mother’s Day, the best way you can honor me, and those who came before, giving me what I give you, is to be loving and kind, thoughtful and giving. To find happiness within yourself and to know you have always been loved.