Opinion
Wilton Bulletin Editorial: Celebrate Mom

May 9, 2008

Once a year, we set aside a day to honor the bond between mother and child. Of course it’s not enough — one can never say thank you and I love you enough to the woman who gave life to oneself or one’s children — but that doesn’t mean Mother’s Day should be scrapped or even scoffed at. It should be celebrated wholeheartedly.

As small children, it’s easy to celebrate mom. She is the one who is always there for us, who loves us unconditionally, who is our best friend. We draw her a picture, help dad make her breakfast in bed. We give her what she wants for a whole day, whether it’s “alone time” or more play time with us.

As we reach the teen-age years, honoring our mother often means not being nasty to her for a whole day, maybe even doing a load of laundry all by ourselves. There is a time in our lives we want only to break away from our parents, to be anything but like them, so celebrating them can be tricky.

Then, we do break away, we grow up, sometimes grow apart. For many, what brings us back to a true appreciation of our mothers is becoming a mother — or even a father, for that matter — ourselves. One gazes at one’s sleeping newborn baby, feels all the terror and joy and love and uncertainty in that one moment, that moment of realization that this is a gigantic responsibility and blessing, and then it hits you: Hey, this is how my parents felt... Now we get it.

Happy Mother’s Day.



© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers