To Children Everywhere...

Moms are weird.  Yes, I said it.  I said what you all think 364 days out of the year and pretend not to think on the one day of the year when you're supposed to think only warm, fuzzy thoughts about your mamas.  We're weird.  We worry about silly little things like whether your underwear is clean or your teeth are brushed.  We fuss at you to wear a helmet, buckle your seatbelt, and eat your vegetables.  We warn you about poking your eye out with sticks and never stop drilling you on what to do if a stranger asks you to help him find his puppy or wanders into your yard.  And it doesn't get any better.  Just when you think we have accepted that you are wise and mature enough not to dart out into the street without looking left, then right, then left again, we start warning you against crazy things like drugs, alcohol, and sex.  We start telling you all the things you'll need to do to get into college, get a good job, live a long and happy life...

And those are just the things you know about.  You have no idea how many things we fret over that never make it to your ears.  If you knew all the things we imagine could have happened but didn't or might happen but don't...  If you knew all the rare diseases we worry you might have and all the freak accidents that might as easily have happened to you as to anyone else...  If you knew all the times we fear we're being too strict, only to decide we're being too lenient, and vice versa...  Good grief!  If you knew everything that went on inside our little heads, you'd question our sanity even more than you already do!  You see, from the moment we know you exist, and often even earlier than that, we are aware of millions of things we might do to mess you up for good, and we know the odds are against avoiding every one of them.  It's no wonder my nine-year-old recently told me that moms are "jittery little creatures."

And yet we aren't all crazy.  There's a little awesome mixed in there, too.  We have, right off the bat and beyond the undeniably amazing ability to bring you into this world, an incomprehensible ability to function on next to no sleep.  We teach you to tie your shoes, ride a bike, bake a cake.  We teach you to blow bubbles, give hugs, say "sorry," read a book, and a gazillion other things.  We know just how to make a skinned knee feel better - or a broken heart.  We wipe away your tears when we can and hold you close when tears fall that not even our expert hands can wipe away.  We help you let go of broken toys and broken dreams and inspire you to believe that something better is just around the corner.  We may sometimes worry about the worst, but we always see and hope for the best.  We love you with a crazy, awesome love.

So we moms are a little crazy, a little awesome.  Sometimes we're nothing short of weird "jittery little creatures."  The important thing to remember this Mothers Day is that we love you - and that someday, you're quite likely to be just as weird - or married to someone just as weird - as your weird mother.