The Definition of Motherhood

The following post is from Amanda of OhAmanda.com and Impress Your Kids:

source: horizontal ingegration

What is motherhood?

This morning, motherhood was getting up early to make a cup of milk for my son, carry him (chugging his milk) on my arm backwards while I lugged my computer into my closet to write a blog post. Then letting him lay on my lap while he reads a Nemo book and I write.

Sometimes, motherhood is walking upstairs four times in one hour to tuck your son in again.

Motherhood is making oatmeal every single day for breakfast.

It’s washing dishes three times a day and still having a messy kitchen.

It’s listening to knock-knock jokes that don’t remotely make sense.

Motherhood is dropping off your kids into the arms of another so you can work hard enough to keep your kids fed and clothed.

It’s sitting in the stands in rain or shine while your kid gets all the applause.

It’s keeping track of other people’s shoes, coats and backpacks when you can’t even find your keys.

It’s making dinner five times slower so your daughter can learn to cook.

It’s getting up early to have a little quiet time because once your kids are awake, you never even go to the bathroom alone.

It’s is filling your kids’ plate with healthy food and then forgetting to eat breakfast yourself.

When you are a mom, you pour out yourself in ways you don’t do for anyone. You give up selfish ambitions. You set aside goals and dreams. But the interesting thing is, those giving-ups? the pouring outs? become your new goals. For some reason, you desire to do more for your kids, to give them the best.

Oh, there’s still days of selfishness. Who am I kidding?! I struggle with selfishness on a minute-by-minute basis! Good moms still have their blood boil when their kids whine for the 50th time in a minute. But for some reason your desires shift when a baby is put in your arms. As much as you want to be-all-that-you-can-be, there is something inside of you that pushes and gives and raises up your children.

Be encouraged, mama!

It’s those little sacrifices, those small acts of giving, the daily choices and yes, even sometimes drudgery that makes your kids take notice. It’s not the big vacations, the perfectly organized home, the fabulous homeschool choices, the creative craftiness or the perfect discipline–it’s the small things that make the most difference. It’s the thing that makes big football players and hip musicians thank their moms first when they win an award. It’s the reason people wave and say, “hi mom!” behind a news camera.

Moms do the tiny, but it becomes big in the life of a child!

What is Motherhood to you?

	Amanda is a stay-at-home mom of two who blogs at OhAmanda.com and Impress Your Kids. In her former life, Amanda was a Children’s Pastor — overseeing, organizing and developing ministry for kids in nursery through middle school, but now that she is a mom, her “skills” are used up on her kids!