A Post Mother’s Day Reflection
The Art of Being a Great Mother
I am one of three brothers, so my mom is as close to being a living saint as there can be.
Growing up, our house had more than enough testosterone as my brothers and I had little care for anything outside of dirt bikes, skateboarding, BB guns, and overly competitive games of sock football inside the house. Needless to say, my mom always seemed to be the odd (wo)man out.
I’m no family expert, but I’m fairly certain now that a house of four boys (including my Dad) is probably not the most girl friendly environment. Somehow though, my mom always seemed to make it work—rarely complaining, always nurturing, and trying her best to deal with the havoc that we constantly wreaked. While I could go on and on about how my mom is amazing for miraculously managing to raise us three boys, something occurred to me yesterday that I find to be much more telling about what it means to be a great mother.
You cannot take the ‘Great’ out of a Great Mother
As kids growing up in a small suburban town, rarely was there a day that my brothers and I didn’t have some friend, teammate, or other hooligan coming over to add to the testosterone cesspool, also known as the Gagliardi household. Looking back, what amazes me most about my mom is that she treated every one of our friends that came over as if they were one of her own children. This is the motherly characteristic, that truly defines what it means to be a great mother.
As I was reminiscing about everything my mom has done for my brothers and I over the years, I constantly was reminded that her motherly love didn’t stop with the children that she bore. The amazing thing about my mom is that she loved my brothers and I unconditionally, but her love and guidance also extended to all of our friends as well.
Being a great mother extends past what you do for your own children, being a great mother is a quality deeply ingrained in who you are as a person.
As I was waiting to pick up my parents from the airport last night—yes, I only got to spend a measly hour with my mom on Mother’s Day—I wandered over to a good friend of mine’s house to have a glass of wine. While I was driving over to my friend’s house, I quickly realized my friend wasn’t even going to be there. This is when the epiphany hit me.
The amazing thing about the friends that I have and the place that we grew up in is that all of our moms are not only mothers to their own children, they are mothers to us all. No matter what girls we were chasing, mischief we were causing, or houses we were destroying, our mothers were always there to love and guide us all. As my friends and I are all in our mid twenties now, I find it amazing that no matter how many years pass the fact still remains:
Our mothers are truly the best thing that has ever happened to any of us.
When my friends and I reflect back on our childhood and we truly consider who we are today, there is no doubt that much of our gratitude needs to be directed to our group of mothers. While each individual mother is amazing in her own right, the trait that is shared between them all is their ability to love their children as well as their children’s friends. You see, there are some things as a boy growing up that you just don’t want to include your own mother in on, but that is not to say that you don’t still need some motherly advice.
Thinking back to my childhood I am constantly reminded of hilarious situations in which my friends shared information to my mom that they would have never disclosed to their own mother. Similarly, I can think of many situations where I ranted about something to a friend’s mom that had I said to my own mother would have shocked or embarrassed her.
In both instances, the mother in play acted both as a friend and as Mom. Whether it was giving motherly advice, listening without lecturing, or simply cooking us food when we accidentally drank to much, each of our mothers provided us with exactly what we needed. They loved, cared, and appreciated us.
So with that in mind and with 364 days until the next “Mother’s Day” I just want to tell my mom Maureen as well as Jamie, Missy, Katherine, Pam, Kelly, Maryann, Vicki, and the countless other mothers who have helped me and my friends become who we are today, Thank You.
You all are inspirational to your children and your children’s friends. Your love is not only appreciated, it is something that we will all carry with us for the rest of our lives—and we are all better people because of it.
