Thoughts on Labor Day (and Mother’s Day!)

This was a post I made on a blog site for Moms, Pinoy Moms Network.

***********************************************************************

I got up today to the sound of fireworks. At first I wondered about the occasion, then realized it was Labor Day today (May 1). Then the thought crossed my mind — Mother’s Day also falls on the month of May.

What could Labor Day and Mother’s Day have in common? Lots!!!!! For who else labors more intensely, loves more passionately, has no set work schedule (available 24/7) , gives no thought to being justly compensated, but mommies like us?

So to celebrate Labor Day today and in anticipation of Mother’s Day, here’s cheers to all of us who have or are still undergoing any of the following:

* almost cried in frustration when our baby had colic and cried no end;

* lost countless hours of sleep breastfeeding our child at odd hours of the day and night ;

* saw more of a hospital, doctors/nurses, the clinics and its rooms than we would care to remember;

* held a regular job and still had to fix dinner upon getting home and see that the kids did their homework and got off to bed while hubby sat at his favorite chair and watched TV;

* gone shopping to treat ourselves — and ended up buying clothes for the kids instead;

* attended who-knows-how-many parent-teacher conferences — with the teachers’ “love letters” in hand — wondering if by some miracle our kid can make it through the rest of the school year based on his/her present scores;

* planned all those celebrations to mark our children’s various milestones (the baptism, the 1st birthday, the 1st birthday in school, the 1st Holy Communion, Gr 7 graduation, the transition to teen-hood, High School graduation, the debut…you get the drift);

* slaved over the children’s scrapbooks;

* spent weekends at the grocery and catching up on much needed…(nope, not sleep. HOUSEWORK!);

* stayed up past midnight waiting for our son or daughter to come home from a date or gimikan with the barkada;

* was the family driver for years on end (and it got even worse as the kids got older!);

* cried buckets at our daughter’s (or son’s) wedding (and for the grandmamas, probably at the birth of the first apo);

and…if given the chance for a life makeover to undo any of our past, would still choose to undergo all of the above.

TAKE A BOW, WONDERFUL MOMMIES!!!