Mother's Day

I remember a story I read years and years ago about a young woman, recently married who found a magazine article that said couples should schedule regular talks to discuss, truthfully and candidly, the habits or mannerisms they find annoying in each other. The theory was that if the partners knew of such annoyances, they could correct them before resentful feelings developed. The idea made sense to her, and her husband who loved her dearly hesitated, but agreed. At their first discussion, she went through her list of his annoying habits and mannerisms, the only one of which she can still remember being the way he ate his grapefruit. He peeled and ate it like an orange! Who does that??? After she was finished with her list she told him it was his turn. He looked at her with loving kindness and said, “Well, to tell the truth, I can’t think of anything I don’t like about you, Honey.” She was flabbergasted and ashamed of her own nitpicking. She learned  marriage could be sweeter when she didn’t focus on her husband’s faults. This experience made her aware early in her marriage that husbands and wives need to keep in perspective, and usually ignore, the small differences in their habits and personalities.

We all come from different backgrounds. My husband and I happen to also come from different countries, cultures, languages, and religious backgrounds. This has not made our marriage or raising our child difficult because we recognize that our differences are just that--differences, not faults, and we love each other.

I am grateful every single day for the loving support Patrice and I give one another in our family. We are good parents. Not perfect, but the perfect parents for our child. I am grateful every single day for the one person I love most on this earth to be by my side, not judging, not criticizing, but loving and supporting me, as we raise our boy.

Motherhood isn't just a monumental responsibility, it is an enormous portion of my identity and again, I am grateful every day for the approval and support of the only person whose opinion really matters to me. He makes me a good mom, and we have a happy, healthy, bright, kind, good, loving, friendly, clever, funny, and otherwise perfect for US child to validate our efforts.

 

 

I'm so happy, blessed, and thankful for the two boys who made me a Mama.