Mother's Day A Little Early

Submitted by Betty Boop

This is for all the mothers who sent their kids to school with stomach
aches, assuring them they'd be just FINE once they got there, only to
get calls from the school nurse an hour later asking them to please pick
them up right away.

This is for mothers whose children have gone astray, who can't find the
words to reach them.

For all the mothers who bite their lips sometimes until they bleed-when
their 14 year olds dye their hair green.

What makes a good Mother anyway?

Is it patience?

Compassion?

Broad hips?

The ability to nurse a baby, cook dinner, and sew a button on a shirt,
allat the same time?

Or is it heart? Is it the ache you feel when you watch your son or
daughter disappear down the street, walking to school alone for the very first
time?

The jolt that takes you from sleep to dread, from bed to crib 2 A. M. to
put your hand on the back of a sleeping baby?

The need to flee from wherever you are and hug your child when you hear
news of a fire, a car accident, a child dying? For all the mothers of
the victims of all these school shootings, and the mothers of those who did
the shooting. For the mothers of the Survivors, and the mothers who sat in
front of their TVs in horror, hugging their child who just came home
from school, safely.

This is for mothers who put pinwheels and teddy bears on their
children's graves.

This is for young mothers stumbling through diaper changes and sleep
deprivation. And mature mothers learning to let go.

For working mothers and stay-at-home mothers.

Single mothers and married Mothers.

Mothers with money, mothers without.