What I want most for Mother’s Day is for someone to speak MY love language by telling me that I am doing this right, and that I am a great mom. I want words of affirmation.
Full disclosure: despite having had Gary Chapman’s book, The 5 Love Languages, for more than 5 years I have yet to actually sit down and read it (however I have read Good Night, Good Night, Construction Site at least 60 if that counts). The 5 love languages detailed therein are gifts, quality time, acts of service, physical touch, and words of affirmation. Despite not having read the book, I have a pretty good idea what each of these languages mean, and even though I want a little from columns 1-5, since becoming a mother the one that I really NEED is words of affirmation…kind words from anyone that give me encouragement.
There are so many phrases that will work: “Good job keeping them alive today”, “I can tell you must really love them”, “How do you do it?”…these statements are all welcome! I want this from anyone who sees the strife, and recognizes the effort. Being a mom is a hard and selfless job, and we all struggle at times. That isn’t to say that we aren’t monumentally thankful for the moments that we have with our children, but we frequently need to be reminded that even though we aren’t perfect, and don’t always make the “right” decisions, we are still great mom
So I put this out to all of you…if you see a mom, be it your wife, friend, or even a stranger, and she is calmly trying to coral her child who is having an epic melt-down (while laying on the floor in an airport), or running out of the office early to take her kid to soccer (despite the fact that she will be working at home until midnight to meet a deadline), or talking to herself as she wonders through a store in her pajamas (covered in breakfast, and possibly vomit) with a toddler and infant in tow trying to remember why she was there, please take a moment and say, “hey, I can tell you are a really great mom, keep it up”.
Happy Mother’s Day to all of you fabulous moms out there!
