Worlds’ Toughest Job. Mom.

Worlds’ Toughest Job. Mom.

Thank you, Mom

After watching an online greeting card company’s humorous and touching Mother’s Day tribute World’s Toughest Job video, I’m convinced that a day isn’t enough to thank the woman who has devoted her life to making ours better — Mom.

They say that you never truly appreciate your mother until you become one yourself. The significance of those words reveals itself as quickly as the positive result on that little stick from the drug store. Nine months of mood swings, soreness, fatigue, anxiety and the more unmentionable discomforts (you remember what I’m talking about) are followed by the physical trauma of forcing something the size of a watermelon out of something the size of a lemon. Then, not only is a sweet little screaming bundle of joy and responsibility born, a mother is as well.

The incalculable amount of sacrifice and labor that is coupled with that title only becomes clearer with time. You say goodbye to a good night’s sleep, spontaneous decisions of any kind, adult time and personal space. You say hello to rogue Legos and clothing scattered like Easter eggs throughout the house, hours of scrubbing surfaces with mysterious and (worse) not-so-mysterious stains, bathroom breaks becoming team efforts and previously viewed cartoons on movie night. You clean, cook, encourage, provide, wipe away tears, kiss owies, put pictures on the fridge and worry everyday that it’s not enough.

Once we grasp the enormity of this awesome undertaking, it’s astonishing to think that someone did all of this for us. Perhaps she isn’t perfect, but she has devoted her existence to keep us alive and prepare us to face the world on our own with no small amount of nurturing love and hard work. So, as I finally put my child to sleep after our nightly ritual of bedtime negotiations and retire, exhausted, to my room to finish some work and (God willing) get a few hours of rest before waking up to a new day of responsibilities, I thank you, Mom, for doing all this and so much more for me.

Though, it’s difficult to express how much her efforts mean to us, with Mother’s Day on the horizon, all we can do is try, remaining ever grateful that she took on the world’s toughest job.