The month of May has one of the most important celebrations throughout the world. In some countries like Guatemala, Chile, Mexico and our country El Salvador; Mother’s Day is celebrated on May 10th. In the United States, Canada, Honduras, Colombia, Switzerland, Australia, Brazil, Peru, and Uruguay it’s on the second Sunday in May. The celebrations vary. In Spain for example, Mother’s Day is on the first Sunday in May, in Paraguay it’s on May 15th, and Bolivia celebrates mothers on May 27th. And to finish off May, Haiti, Dominican Republic, France and Nicaragua celebrate Moms on May 30th.
In Costa Rica; on the other hand, Mother’s Day is celebrated on August 15. Furthermore, Argentinian Moms celebrate the third Sunday in October, whereas Panama celebrates Moms on December 8th. In the United Kingdom, her majesty the Queen and all the mothers in England are celebrated on the fourth Sunday in Lent. In Russia, however, Mothers are celebrated on the same day as International Women’s Day.
Mother’s Day is a day to be with family. It is a time where sons and daughters not only celebrate Mom, but they celebrate her courage, sacrifices and lessons received. A mother’s love encompasses so much! From meals prepared with love to her unconditional love and support, and all her endless prayers to keep them safe. We celebrate all that a mother does and gives for her children, it is a time to give back all that they’ve received.
I’ve heard some sayings trying to diminish or take away a mothers’ merit; I’ve heard people say: “What does a mother do that a father doesn’t do? I truly think there are some exceptional fathers out there, but most of them can’t be compared to a mother, why not?
Let’s start at the beginning. Fathers don’t carry their children in the womb for 9 months, there are no hormonal consequences in their bodies (which in some cases stay in our bodies forever!) and no physical scars either. They don’t suffer any labor pains that only mothers know about and endure; or c-section scars and sometimes paralysis for the rest of their lives.
Fathers don’t have a single consequence of what could have gone wrong during childbirth, they are not victims of any doctor’s malpractice. Their bodies don’t become deformed for the rest of their lives, there are no marks, scars, or the stretch marks that stay in their bodies. They have no idea of the recovery we go through after childbirth. When I had my first baby after 21 hours in labor, my doctor told me: “Having a baby is equivalent to running a marathon without training for it”.
The stress that women bodies endure during childbirth is similar to running those 26 miles nonstop without training for it! and this lasts only an average of 6 hours, not 21! At that very moment when your life was about to change forever, didn’t you feel that every bone in your body was breaking and your heart would explode?! I did. The maximum number of PPTs (Pressure Pain Threshold units) any human being can take is 45 which is equivalent to breaking 20 bones at once and some women can endure 57 PPTs while giving birth.
Many fathers never experience a sleepless night when newborns need to be fed multiple times in the middle of the night. Why? Oh, ‘Because they have to go to work the next morning’. I am blessed with a husband that helped because I also had to get the next morning and go to work just like him with or without sleep. And like that, there are many big and small things that only us mothers do for our children, the list is endless. We know that.
I know fathers that never bathed their kids, read them a story or took them to the doctor. They never lost sleep an entire night taking care of a sick child; they never helped their wife in feeding that baby or changing his/her diaper, cleaning some vomit…. so many trivial things that seem small that we do and that fathers don’t have the ability to see and let alone acknowledge! But the truth is that mothers deserve all the recognition in the world. Why you may ask? Why all that credit?? Simply because when we hit that pillow, we are dead tired, exhausted after giving not 100 but 500% of ourselves but feel completely accomplished and satisfied that our children and our home are ok.
When everyone sleeps, we’re still awake and when no one is up yet, we’ve already been up for a while taking care of things no matter how tired we feel.
As women, we have the ability to sense when something is wrong with our kids without anyone telling us anything. It’s an intuition, a sixth sense you may call it, and beyond comparison intuition that only we possess. We see the invisible, smell what hasn’t been cooked yet, we touch something unfinished ….. all for the benefit of our children and we almost never ever make a mistake. That’s how mothers are, right?
I know that a lot has changed today regarding fathers and that now they make a point to help their wives. Let me be clear, my purpose with this blog is NOT to take away merit from anyone. I merely want to point out what a mother goes through, the things that fathers will never go through and that is the reason for the phrase ONLY A MOTHER’S LOVE CAN….
As another month comes to an end and wherever you are, I would like to send you a big hug and the warmest congratulations for the blessing of calling yourself MOM. Isn’t it wonderful to see LOVE transformed into our children that we will care for our entire life? What a great responsibility!
I hope everyone of your kids can take that love for you to another dimension and that the light you’ve given them reflects in the morals and values you taught them for the well being of this world.
With Everlasting Passion,
Jackie
