She put Spiderman Band-Aids on your scraped knees, made you chocolate chip cookies after your first day of school and still sometimes picks up your dirty socks when you come home to visit. Moms are awesome, and to all those Vandal moms on campus this weekend, you rock and we salute you.
They teach you things
From tying your shoes to tying together color schemes, moms educate their kids. They are a treasure trove of information. My mother, Martha Lichtenberg, taught me how to frost a cake, French-braid hair, order pizza, wrap a present, make a bed, change a diaper, visit with old people, read, balance a checkbook, make popcorn the old-fashioned way and stand up for myself. It takes a while to realize, but most of what you learn in your formative years is a result of your mom.
They were your first buddy
Chances are, most of the time you spent under the age of five, you spent in a 100-foot radius of your mom. Even though you both occasionally lost your temper, (more often than not,) at the end of the day you still liked each other.
Even then, they were your parent first and your friend second
This is something that took a while to realize the benefits of. In high school, when all of my friends’ parents were calling the school constantly to blame their kids’ grades on the teachers, my mom blamed all of my subpar scores on what was at fault: my study habits. I hated it then, but now when problems arise, I am able to clearly discern when I am to blame and when someone else is slacking. If my mom had focused on keeping me happy all the time, I would probably be in the same pickle as the boy who cried wolf.
They birthed you
Even if they did nothing else for you ever, you would still have to be eternally grateful to your mom for this one. Your mother loved you enough to painfully shove you out of her body. Even more shocking is the fact that she loves you in spite of having had to birth you.
They are proud of you
You probably remember a time, probably in middle school, that you did awfully in some competition and your mom was genuinely excited about your success. For me, it was seventh grade track, and even though I came in dead last in the 100-meter sprint, she congratulated me and said, “It doesn’t matter if you win or lose, you just have to look the best. And you did.”
Nicole Lichtenberg can be reached at [email protected]