- We Always Think You’re Beautiful — We believe you’re the most beautiful woman we’ve ever laid eyes on. We hope someday someone tells us that we remind them of you because we wear your features like badges of honor.
- We Worry If You’re Okay Too — You spent half your life worrying about us when we were little. Now that we’re both getting older (and possibly have kids of our own), we find ourselves wondering if you’re healthy and if there’s anything you need.
- We Secretly Think You’re Stronger Than Dad — He can pop open the pickle jar and give our boyfriends a wearisome run for their money, but when it comes to unadulterated tenaciousness and forming a solid backbone, that we build from watching you.
- We Remember Everything You Did For Us Even If You Think We Don’t — We remember the cold winter mornings you warmed our cars up for us while we were in high school, how happy you were to see us all the time and the way you made such a big deal about our birthdays every year. We remember everything about the kind of mother you were, and the way you love us still brings us to tears.
- Laughing With You Reminds Us We Will Always Have A Champion In Our Corner — No matter how old we are (or how many of our friends have come and gone) the connection we share with you about the hilarity that is life is unprecedented and cannot be reproduced anywhere with anyone else, not even Dad.
- Never Stop Rallying With Us In The Kitchen — Our chocolate chip cookies will never be as scrumptious as yours, but we are never too old to be your sous chef. It will be a legacy we will pass down to our daughters.
- We Hope We Can Love Our Grandchildren As Much As You Do Some Day — We hope our children’s children have an out-of-body experience when they catch wind of visiting grandma later the way our kids do.
- Don’t Give Dad Any Crap — But don’t take any either. Be respectful and affectionate with him. Work on your stuff before you tell him how to fix his. And don’t forget to honor yourself (in front of us) as much as you do him. We learn how to love the men in our life by watching the way you cherish our fathers.
- We Want You To Hug Us And Tell Us Everything Is Going To Be Okay — Whether we’re 7 or 37, we will never grow tired of hearing those words from you and your irreplaceable embrace.
- Show Us How To Manage Our Finances — By tending confidently and responsibly to your own.
- We Could Never Be As Mad At You As We Are At Dad — Sorry Dads, you got the shit end of the stick on this one.
- Teach Us How To Stand On Our Own Two Feet —Whether it is in heels, flats, or Nike Zoom’s. Teach us how to live and function in the world without you (no matter how strong your need to help us do it is.) It will be one of the best gifts you can give us.
- Teach Us The Basics Of Good Skin Care — We don’t need to know how to draw sexy cat eyes with our eyeliner. But we do need to understand the impotence of drinking plenty of water, washing all of our makeup off, and most importantly how to love every single freckle under that foundation. (A high-ranking eye cream never hurt anybody either.)
- Don’t Shame Us For Having Sex — Talk to us about it instead. Have a rational conversation with us about our bodies, their mightiness, and how to make responsible decisions with them. We’re going to have sex eventually, so might as well talk about it first.
- You Are Enough — Just the way you are. You are a good mother, the best one we’ve ever had. The list of things we want you to know is infinite, just like your love. And we don’t know what we’d do without you.
As if writing about motherhood didn’t make me feel warm and fuzzy enough already, my daughter needed a little extra love tonight. She asked if she could snuggle with me in my bed before going to hers. I finished editing this piece on my phone while she sawed her seven-year-old sized logs in my arms.
It was pure bliss.
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Previously Published on Medium
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