READING BETWEEN THE PINES

My career trajectory over the past 20 years has been long and broad, with years of working full time, staying at home, and everything in between. I’ve learned that all moms are made of the same DNA, so rather than split our differences, I’d like to highlight the things we share.

As moms, we struggle to find the right words for the challenging questions our children ask, especially when we don’t know the answers.

We want our children to trust us. And we want to trust them. But we track them on our phones just in case.

We constantly wrestle with universal mom feeling #2 – guilt, which is only surpassed by the comfort of universal mom feeling #1 – love.

Some of us are doctors, lawyers, and professors, yet none of us have figured out how to get our kids to hang towels on the rack. Or to stop stepping over all their crap on the stairs. Or to load the dishwasher in a way that doesn’t give us vertigo.

Because we’re human we make mistakes. Because we’re healers we figure out how to fix them.

When our children’s words sting and their actions hurt, we stick around. And sign up for more. Because even on the toughest days, we love what we do.

We teach lessons in the time we spend with our kids, and time spent away from them.

We want our kids to spread their wings and soar yet touch back down from time to time.

Some of us are the financial anchors for our families, others are the emotional backbone, and many are both. We’re the daughters of aging parents and the mothers of children with disabilities, and often serve as lifelines to three generations of our family. We’re taxed and we’re tired, yet we’re up for any challenge. Unconditionally.

We’re optimists who want to leave the world a better place for our children than the one we gave them, yet we’re not sure that we can.

At the end of the day, we all want the same thing: happy children who feel unconditionally loved and can consistently pick their dirty laundry up off the floor.

We love and we lose, are both wise and weary, and sometimes just try to make it through the day. We’ve had a lot more triumphs and teaching moments than fears and failures, and we constantly learn. To be good people, strong women, and the best mothers.

In addition to the multitude of things that inspire me to write, I’m a contributor to our local community paper, The Castle Pines Connection. Come check out the neighborhood and people who make it meaningful at www.castlepinesconnection.com.