Having spent a few years observing my sisters, I have had many chances to see motherhood in action. Although these actions are foreign and sometimes… well, most of the time, confusing to me. I have learned a few things from them.
The first thing that I have learned about mothers is that I don’t ever want to be one (score one for being a man).
My sister goes to bed after everyone else, and wakes up earlier than anyone I have ever seen. Then she is non-stop running around. Taking this child here, and that one there… I can guarantee that I would mix the children’s destinations up… That is provided that I even got the children in the car, and didn’t walk out with like a watermelon instead. She does all the house work, pays all the bills and runs all the errands, not to mention that in the middle of all this, she is making them food as well as making sure that they don’t die. Which, after watching the children for some time I think that all kids have a death wish.
The other thing I have found out is that mothers possess a series of secret skills! I think that being a mother is actually a cover-up, and they are really Superhero’s.
Let’s name a few Superhero powers:
1) Super Strength – I once saw a mother holding 2 kids, with a third around her leg, as she was signing a check and grabbing her groceries. She then carried them all out of the store.
2) Laser Eyes – My niece was driving me insane one day, so I leaned over, looked her square in the eyes and very lightly whispered “There is a monster that lives under your bed. He eats children, and he is just waiting for you to slip up so he can get you too”. When I looked up my sister was staring at me, and after about 5 seconds, my heart stopped beating… I tried to bang on my chest to restart it, but I think that looked like I was challenging her to a fight, because she raised one eyebrow and then my skin started to burn. I slowly backed away from her, before make a run for it.
3) Super Hearing – The fact that my sister heard me whisper that at all was a testament to that power!!!
4) Super speed – Mothers are the fastest slappers I have ever seen… Especially my own.
However, that is not even what impresses me the most. What is the most amazing is a mother’s ability to deal with her children. I figure that this is a power that all Superhero’s have: The ability to constantly deal with the daily battles that rage around them. I mean, come on, at some point wouldn’t you just want to say to the world ‘You deal with it! I’m sick of saving you! I am sick of being used for my powers!’ This is more than just the power of patience. This is the ability to understand exactly how important you really are. In that child’s eyes, you are the whole world. The moment that the world stops caring, the child, or at least a part of it, dies.
To further prove this point, I thought I would tell you a small story about these powers. A few semesters ago I was taking a class, and in it, I started to make friends with a woman who had two kids. Her super power was talking… and she was great at it. As we would wait for class to start, I would sit and listen to her stories.
One day she told me about a neighbor of hers. Apparently, while this neighbors family was cutting down a large tree in their back yard, her child was hit by the falling tree. As the child lay under the tree, unable to free himself, the mother mustered all of her strength and picked the massive tree off of her child.
The story gained some press, but now the mother was being tested for drugs in order to keep her child. My classmate was outraged that they could think that her neighbor was on drugs. As she ranted about this, I started to lightly chuckle. She stopped talking and firmly asked “Do you think that she was on drugs? Do you think that is the only way she could lift that tree off of her child?” I could see that she had let her claws out and would attack me for just about any response that I had to offer. I lightly smiled and said “Nah. She was just a Superhero who got caught using her powers.” She looked at me confused and then smiled a bit, and then looked away. Whatever she thought about my comment she kept to herself, which was kind of a first.
Gifted with the power to give life, and then to protect it. That seems like more than an ordinary human to me.
So, here’s to you mothers of the world; I do not envy what you do, but I damn sure respect it.
I hope you all have a Happy Mother’s Day!
As Random As Random Gets 