Mother’s Day musings

As I make hasty plans to celebrate the final college graduation of my maternal career, I am pondering the beauty of parental transitions.

I should be confirming reservations, packing, even figuring out what I’m going to wear. But I accidentally pulled out an old shoebox that sent me down a familiar detour and now I’m going to enjoy the ride.

As the lucky mother of four kids, I spent most of my adult life with my arms full of baby. “Where’s my Molly blankie?!” I’d call out at my oldest son’s football games and, from her toddler through pre-school years, my youngest daughter would crawl into my lap to keep us both warm.

We enjoy reciprocal relationships with our kids even when they are little. They come to us for bedtime stories and Band-Aids and we fill ourselves up with their innocence and love.

The parental pendulum swings steadily forward. One day you’re tying shoes and braiding pigtails and the next you’re seeking edits and advice in family group chats and emails.

I’ve come to realize how beautiful this evolution can be.

All four of my kids have grown into adults I admire. They stand taller than I do, develop their opinions wisely and listen with mostly open minds. I enjoy their neighborhoods when I visit and I love their friends.

Families expand in wonderful ways when their members grow up. Ours now includes two fiancées, lovely, fierce women who will add strong branches to our family tree.

So, while today I’m spending a little time looking backward through the years, on Mother’s Day I’ll be looking forward to another year full of love.

Happy Mother’s Day weekend!