Appreciate Motherhood

Picture this scene – a typical story of Motherhood:

The two-year-old turns on a garden hose in the driveway. His mother quickly runs over and shuts it off, scolding him, and telling him that Mama does not want him to get all wet. She goes back to her front porch cup of coffee, leaving him to play with his tricycle while she reads her newspaper. A few minutes later, lost in thoughts of the beautiful morning, she hears a small slurping sound. Starting off to scold the child again for turning on the water, she walks to the edge of the porch and sees him kneeling on the dry pavement, leaning his head into the puddle, face first for a drink off the driveway. Well, he wasn’t getting wet. She smiles, thinking that he was following the rule to the letter, by not getting his overalls wet, and informs him if he was thirsty, Mama would be glad to get him a cup of water. His gleeful little eyes look up at her face. He smiles, and promptly crawls straight towards her through the puddle of water.

If you aren’t a mother, you have one: Alive/or dearly departed. The woman who birthed you/or the woman who loved you. Close in our hearts/or a struggle to overcome. This is the week that the calendar tells us to honor our Mothers. At Do Tell, it seems like a good time to start talking about one of the most potent tools we have for creating the lives we were meant to live – appreciation.

Mother’s Day is all about appreciation, taking a few moments to think about those women, who have played the nurturing role of Mother in our lives. They are the ones who picked us up off the driveway and changed our wet overalls. They are the ones who wiped our noses, changed our diapers and put Band-aids on our knees when we fell. They taught us how to ride a bike, and made us eat our vegetables. They cried with us when we failed our tests, or didn’t get the job we wanted. They gave us rules we didn’t want to follow, and told us not to hang out with those friends we thought were so cool. Even now, they still carry us through our trials, and never give up on us, no matter how many times we make the same mistakes.

Not all mothers are perfect, some are very far from it. Maybe you’re going through a rough patch with your mother, or maybe she is your best friend. Perhaps she is gone, and you miss her. In any case, you can make this Mother’s Day better for both of you by taking a few minutes to stop and think about  appreciation. Do it right now. Think of three things you appreciate about her. Don’t read further until you do. Visualize them in the spaces below.

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Now, if you are a mother, the reality is that motherhood can be less than glamourous at times. So, do the same exercise. Stop and think about three things you appreciate about motherhood. There are spaces below for that as well.

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Did you fill in the spaces? Was it hard? If you did, did you feel your spirits lift? That’s what we mean by appreciation being a potent tool. It can really change your attitude and change your day. It’s a good exercise just a few days before Mother’s Day, or on any day when you need to get a little lift. If nothing else, you have at least come up with something to write in the card.

And if you’re still looking for the perfect gift, consider the family edition of Do Tell: The Relationship Game. It is a great way to express appreciation to your Mom, because it says you want to spend time together, connecting, laughing and just enjoying life. That means a lot to Mom. Do Tell questions will have you talking about things you haven’t considered in years. You’ll be reminiscing about good times together as a family and creating new times to remember.

We hope you try it and have a Happy Mother’s Day.