"Summon up some sympathy in the spirit of the sisterhood"

On this upcoming Mother’s Day, I’d like to ask a favor of the moms out there.

Yes, I know it’s your day, so why should you do anything for ME? Everyone should be focusing on YOU.

Oddly enough, that’s the favor I’m asking of you: to focus on yourself. To remember your own experiences as a mother. Perhaps doing so will help you remember to go a bit easier on your fellow moms.

Your children might be older now, but surely you remember disastrous outings with them in which you had an agenda to accomplish – and their agenda was simply to thwart YOUR agenda. Surely you remember airplane flights during which your children continually kicked the seat in front of them, no matter how furiously you admonished them to stop. Surely you remember meals at family restaurants where your children played with their food while yours remained untouched.

Children have very little perspective – it’s only natural, given how few experiences they’ve had. A minor disappointment to us feels like the end of the world to them. They simply don’t know any better, and as much as we try to teach them, there’s no substitute for experience.

We adults should know better, but considering how some adults – even mothers – behave in the above-described situations (not the parents of the children in question, but the observers) you’d think they’d never had a tough time with their own children.

Frankly, when adults act as if a crying baby on a six-hour flight is the end of the world, I want to tell them to grow up. Because they are behaving just as badly as the child in question, but unlike that child, they have no excuse for their immaturity.

Even adults who don’t have children ought to bear in mind that once upon a time, someone wiped their butts upwards of ten times a day. None of us was born behaving beautifully and thinking and acting rationally – it takes good parenting and the passing of time to get there.

On this upcoming Mother’s Day, remember that we’ve all been there – either as a parent or as a child ourselves. Sing your own praises – why not? It’s your day! – but remember to sing the praises of others too.


Julie is a woman who never dreamed she’d be the mother of two little girls (who may or may not become mothers themselves one day). She doesn’t want to think about how anyone else ever had to wipe her butt, but she loves her mother and grandmother very much and wishes them a Happy Mother’s Day each and every day of the year.

This post is a part of the Mother's Day edition of the Blog Exchange, special thanks to Kristen for putting it together. Julie has a fantastic blog called mothergoosemouse and today, it's where you'll find me. Come on over for my post and stay for some of Julie's, you won't be sorry. Be sure to check out all the other posts at the Blog Exchange.