An Open Letter to my Mom (and all the Moms)

You guys…being a mom is hard! (I know, this is earth shattering news — you never would’ve guessed.) 😉

But as a kid, you really never think about how much your mom does for you…and I know I never had any clue how much a mom could love her child until I laid eyes on my tiny newborn for the first time.

So I’d just like to take a second and publicly say…thank you, Mom! Thanks for all the sleep deprivation you endured because of me, all the dirty diapers you changed, puke you cleaned up at 2am, boo-boos you kissed, spilled milk you mopped up, sleepless hours you spent waiting for fevers to break, sweaty, miserable hours you spent watching me play at the park, and never-ending made up dances around the living room you watched and applauded even when you were most certainly bored out of your mind.

Thanks for reading “Little House on the Prairie” while we camped by a lake and letting me imagine what it would have been like to be Laura (or at least a very  romanticized version of her). And then thanks for blowing up a pigs bladder to play with like a balloon and making me super grateful I didn’t actually  have Laura’s life.  (EEEEEEEW!!!)

Thanks for reading all  the books, actually. And adding fun sound effects,  and singing the “I am a pig” song, and reading one more bedtime story even when you were so exhausted you could barely keep your eyes open. They say children learn to love reading on the laps of their parents, and I can’t imagine life without the incredible pleasure of losing myself in books that I know you instilled in me when I was tiny. 😀

Thanks for taking me to all the ballet lessons  for years and years, even when we lived out in the boondocks and you had 4 other kids you had to keep happy while I danced my heart out. I never realized how much something like that costs, and the sacrifices you and Dad had to make to pay for it. I also never realized how much waiting for an hour (or running errands, or well, anything) with little kids can make you want to pull your hair out!  All the practice I put in taught me that I could achieve my goals if I worked hard enough. It also taught me that sometimes life is really, really not fair — like the Nutcracker audition where we didn’t even get to dance, they just walked through the room and selected the girls who would fit best into the costumes they already had, but, really, that’s an important lesson, too.

Thanks for encouraging me to write…even when my first stories went something along the lines of, “I like mice, mice are nice, they eat rice, and have lice.”  😉

Thanks for a simple childhood full of summers at the pool with cans of Country Time Lemonade, and weekly trips to the library to stock up on all the books,  and swinging in the backyard, and running around Grandma’s ranch, and taking long walks around the neighborhood in the evening.

You’re a rock star, Mom. I don’t know how you did it all…cause this Mom thing is no joke. Last night I passed out on the floor next to Apple who I’d just set down to change (on a pad on the floor) when she pooped again…and in my exhaustion I decided I’d lie down next to her while I waited for her to finish pooping — and then I woke up half an hour later. Then at 2am Boo woke me up cause she had a fever and felt like puking. And all my towels are dirty, now, I’m so behind on laundry, so I just dried Apple with a baby blanket. And I’m so tired I put my jacket on under my shirt, forgot the sugar in my coffee, put soap on my toothbrush, and put my kid’s juice in the microwave instead of the fridge.

Thank you, so incredibly much, Mom, and all moms, for ALL THE THINGS that I could never possibly mention because motherhood is day in and day out – playing, and cleaning, and loving, and worrying, and hugging, and stressing, and laughing, and pulling your hair out, and teaching, and learning, and holding tight, and letting go…in sickness and in health, for better and for worse, never giving up, constantly and forever. 

With Mother’s Day coming up I’ve been thinking about what could possibly thank my mom enough and the answer is…nothing.

There’s no gift that could possibly do that. But she did mention that she was thinking about trying Stitch Fix this summer, and I think a Stitch Fix Gift Card would be a super sweet Mother’s Day gift (I know I’d love to receive one).  😀

Though now she’s seen this post, so if I get her that she won’t be surprised, so maybe I won’t…hmm.

The rest of you reading this, though, since you can get your Mom a gift card for a personal stylist who will send lovely clothes and accessories chosen just for her right to her doorstep without her knowing in advance that’s what you’re thinking of doing  you totally should!

Or get her coffee, because she’s probably still  tired from all the sleep deprivation you caused. Or wine, because goodness knows she’s earned it. 😉

(Post contains affiliate links and I may be compensated — as in, if you decide you’d love to give your mom or anyone else a Stitch Fix gift card, it would be awesome if you used my link to do so which will give me a small commission, thus helping out  this mom.)