Birthdays should honor moms

Today is my son's birthday and a time to celebrate how thrilled I am that he is here and mine.  Even with the dirty room, the questionable internet habits and the lazy study skills, I love and adore my son and would not trade him in for anyone.

So first and foremost I wish him a very happy birthday.

I would however like to reinvent birthday honors.  Yes we are all thrilled that the birthday person is around but who is really the one that should be honored?  It is the mother.  Yes yes yes.  I could even be persuaded to include the father, but let's focus on good old mom.

It was the mom who went through nine months of tight clothes, swollen ankles and nausea.  It was the mom who had to make concessions with her career and sit through horrific delivery training videos.  It was the mom whose body experienced the "beauty" of childbirth and then developed utters to feed the child.  All that prior to leaving the hospital!

What about the tears shed when your child gets hurt by the unforgiving stairs or the mean kid in pre-school?  What about the anxiety over when he will talk or walk or use the potty?  Nights crying over poor choices and unknown futures.

Maybe the benefits outweigh any possible birthday celebration for moms. We get that feeling when they spontaneously come up and kiss us.  We get the joy of being on the receiving line of one of their beautiful smiles.  We get to know that regardless of what they do or who they become, they are a part of us forever.

So birthday celebrations to me - the mom.  I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Here is last year's family celebration.