Mothers, Happy Mother's Day!

It’s Mother’s Day? I thought I had this Sunday circled on my calendar because it was Doomsday- the day before the pharmacology final in a class where we are expected to teach ourselves all the course material over three weeks. Just kidding, Mom. I knew about today even before Dad reminded me last night. “Brian, you better call your Mom tomorrow. It’s Mother’s Day.” He has no faith in me.

I hadn’t really thought that much about the importance of today and especially wasn’t going to blog about my thoughts until I was bombarded with a flurry of Facebook statuses. Most explained how a mom had affected or helped her child, and one even grotesquely detailed childbearing and its possible complications. “DVT! Postpartum hemorrhage! I love you, Mom!” I’ll sell the rights to Hallmark.

So I guess the “cute” thing to do is post your feelings about your mom on the Internet where she may stumble over it. Well, sorry Mom, but this isn’t about you. It doesn’t need to be. You know how awesome you are. Lisa and I tell you every day. Now everyone out there might think that I’m being harsh, but really, my mom doesn’t need the extra love. She actually gets more love than the regular mom since she isn’t just Mom to me and my sister- she seems to be Mom to the entire universe. Do you know she takes my sister’s and my friend’s out to lunch without us? Yup. She even talks to them on the phone to discuss their problems. If I let her have a Facebook account she would definitely have more friends than Lisa or me, and that’s saying something. She is the most giving person I know (even though it’s my father’s money) and is always willing to listen and then talk… and talk… and talk….

But as I said, this isn’t about how great my mom is. I want to talk about how awesome all moms are.  Case in point, have you ever heard of a bad mom? Nope. You hear plenty of stories about bad dads who either abandon the family or do not spend enough time with the child. But a mom? I have never heard anything mean about any of them. Maybe in a movie, but that’s because it’s make-believe. Someone could argue that it’s difficult for a father to spend time with his child if he is the breadwinner. But then how do single, working mothers spend so much time with their child? I don’t know how they do it. It’s like some super gene gets turned on when they deliver a child, maybe I’ll learn about it when I take a look at the biochem section of my review book.

Of course I’m creating generalities from a very limited pool, but really, moms are great. There is no avoiding that fact. They make you home-cooked meals when you visit, listen to your endless complaining when no one else will, quit their research soon after earning a PhD, stay up until the wee-hours of the morning editing your high school English papers, and are just plain awesome.

So from me to all the moms out there: Thanks for everything. You are amazing.

The best Mom is visiting New York, July 22. I’m sure she is ready to go wine-tasting.

See you there.