Open your mind and open your world, bitch!
Happy Mother’s Day, everyone!
As I’ve been embarking on my travels and living in various households, I’ve been lucky to witness a wide variety of parenting and many mothers in action. The blatant connecting factor between all households, though, is The Motherly Superhuman Ability. Simply put, mothers seem to be able to just do everything. Like today, while I was driving into town with my Swiss host mother, I watched as she managed to rock her 5-month-old from shriek to sleep, entertained her 2.5-year-old, drove manual down winding mountain roads, and held a conversation with me in English, which is my native language and not hers. I will admit that at times, I was just a bit nervous regarding our distance from the cliff’s edge, but that feeling was belittled by my awe of mom-power, gracefully and quickly taking its place.
(Also side note, this stereotype of women being bad drivers is such bullshit because who’s to say there’s not a child in the backseat or a tampon falling out or a pregnancy test being taken? Behind The Scenes is the name of the game that is womanhood, and while the scenes don’t necessarily need to be present, or even should be present, I think the idea of no scenes is a bit privileged and unfortunately not quite oven-ready due to society’s current idea of supporting women.)
Special treat and child in hand. Barrette in hair. Dangly earrings hanging low. She is the moment.
Being a mother is intersectional too, and I’d like to spend this mothers day celebrating that. Being a mother encapsulates not only motherhood, but also womanhood (or something else), and probably other identities as well. While motherhood and womanhood may seem as if they go hand in hand, LOL. Keep reading, hoe! A woman can be a woman and never fully understand motherhood’s joys, perils, and magic, but a mother can never separate her mother-ness from her woman-ness or other identity (ies), and let’s all make sure mothers give themselves credit for being so intersectional and awesome!
But wait!
On Mother’s Day, I think about my father too! Not everyone has a mother, or likes their mother, and why should we gender and separate parenthood, anyway!?
When I was a child and my mother would head out on a weekend trip, leaving the sisters alone with dad, life definitely did look different. On these weekends, the salad came in bags, the pancakes came in plenty, and the time spent in the basement probably tripled. That was pretty much it, though, compared to when the parental force came in full. I think this then proves that my dad is just another mother with a Y chromosome, so I should give him a big, extra thank you today as well. I understand that I am very lucky to have grown up this way, but really in any circumstance, I still believe that these days, gender is just a costume we wear when want to. Fathers are mothers are mothers are fathers and some birth and some don’t and we thank them all today anyway! And I especially thank my parents for being just parents and not GRILL DAD and CUPCAKE MOM, because now I understand that I don’t have to wear those silly costumes either.
So cheers to mothers everywhere today, whatever that means to you! Something magically mysterious must happen when folks become Mothers because those people are really something else. The world is so grateful for your and all of your behind-the-scenes work.
Happy Mother’s Day!
Love,
Sal
Did she want to be there? Probably not. But she showed up anyway
P.S. I hope you enjoyed this smorgasbord post. Mark Twain said, “Don’t wait, the time is just never right,” which felt more applicable in my head, but I hope you enjoy my budding thoughts/gratitude. Who knew mother’s day was so complicated? Clearly me. LOL!!!!!
I hope this highlights the fact that when motherhood is multifaceted, it can spread more light. So again, open your mind and open your world! Let there be light!
Lots of Love <3
& Some Favorite Moments of my Mom
- normalized camp songs before dinner
- sharing the best part and worst part of our day. literally every day.
- randomness
- the flute?
- being a matriarch
- fluidity
- that one really, really bad dinner you made that one time
- sweet tooth
- being the funniest person ever
- caring about society
- caring about us!!!!!
- and not caring too much about the eyes of others
- showing UP!
- being a jerry so we don’t have to be
- really shitty cooking so I could experience good food for the first time at a memorable age! Why waste that feeling as a child? Right?
- and so much more!!!
Sal, Thank you. I can’t wait to see you so I can give you a big, big hug. Love, Mom
What’s a jerry??