So, how was your mother's day?

Today a friend and I were catching up on the past week's events. The subject of mother's day came up.

"So how was your mother's day?"

We both agreed on a few things. Number one, there's a certain heirarchy of mothers. The older the mother, the more honored and revered. The larger the corsage. The more she gets to sit back and bask in the warmth and affection of the day.

The events of MY day assure me that I have a long way to climb in that hierarchy. When the extended family had gone and I finally sat down last night, my feet and back were more sore than they've been in weeks. Earlier in the day, I only made it through 15 minutes of church before finding myself in exile (a.k.a. "mother's room") with a hungry baby and a three year old who was near melt-down. I WAS able to hear some of the mother's day commentary over the speaker so that was nice. I tried not to breathe too deeply as the stench of the diaper pail was a little distracting. I was also playing a game of I-Spy with Gavin and nursing Mia, so I have to admit that the speakers didn't have my FULL attention. I walked home from church early to put Mia down for a nap (she'd had it) so if there were kind words uttered about mothers in the third hour I missed them.

Here's the thing. I'll be frank. There were a lot of kind words said about mothers yesterday. We love our mothers. We honor them for all they've done. Our lives would be nothing without them. We like to recite poems about moms whose kids mix the sugar with the flour and sneak bugs into the house. It's all very sweet. But I have some suggestions for people who REALLY want to make the difference in the life of a mother:

1) First and foremost, cut us some slack! If our children are less than model citizens, if we don't manage to find time in the day to exercise or we haven't yet lost our baby weight, if we serve our family processed food, if we show up late for a doctor's appointment... try (just try) to understand! If nothing else, be kind.

2) Offer to take our fussy baby for a walk in the hall so that WE can sit and listen to the lesson (or eat our food while it's hot.)

3) Offer to babysit so that we can leave the house or take a nap or a shower!

4) When we defy all the circumstances that try to prevent us from doing something EXTRA, something kind or thoughtful, something creative, something extraordinary... say thank you! Show us that you understand what it took to accomplish this.

5) How about telling us that we're doing a good job, that our children won't be forever damaged because we yelled at them this morning or neglected to adequately teach them their spelling words this week?

Don't get me wrong, I don't HATE mother's day (my friend's mom confessed that she does.) I wouldn't go that far. I just wish there were more walking the walk and less talking the talk.