The Plain Truth About Motherhood
As a mother, you love your adored and helpless son and care for him when he is small. You fret and nag and make sure your child takes his vitamins, eats right, and gets enough rest. You take him to the doctor when he is sick.
Then your adored and helpless son grows up and thinks he doesn't need you anymore. The poor deceived child is wrong, so wrong. He only thinks he doesn't need you. You fret and nag and tell your adult baby to take his vitamins, eat right, and get enough rest. You urge him to go to the doctor when he is sick. It is your job as a mother to fret and nag. It will always be your job. You remind your adored and helpless baby about this motherhood job requirement each time he complains that you fret and nag too much.
Then, one day, your adored and helpless son finds a sweet and lovely young woman. A beautiful wedding follows. The adored and helpless son now has a wife to care for him. She is not his mother, but she needs to practice for the day when she becomes a mother. So she tells her adored and helpless husband to take his vitamins, eat right, and get enough rest. She tells him to go to the doctor when he is sick. It is a relief that you no longer bear the entire caretaking burden alone. Your daughter-in-law is a tremendous and welcome help. You can see, with continued practice, she will make an excellent mother.
There are several drawbacks to this otherwise blessed marriage which, in fairness to mothers everywhere, must be revealed. Because you are now a mother-in-law, your fretting increases. You not only fret over your adored and helpless son but also his sweet, lovely, adored, and not-so-helpless spouse since she is your child now, too. When grandchildren arrive, you will be required to fret over those sweet, adored, helpless, and perfect beings. As if this wasn't enough to do, it will also become necessary to spoil the grandchildren rotten and then send them home to your adored and annoyed son and daughter-in-law. All of this simply goes to show that a mother's work is never done. And that, my friends, is the plain truth about motherhood.
© 2012 Mary R. Schutter
