Happy Mother’s Day!
At weeSpring, we’re not just celebrating the moms and grandmas in our lives today. We’re also honoring the caregivers who help us be the great moms that we strive to be. Without these babysitters, mothers-in-law, husbands, teachers, and friends, we’d be struggling to fill the (very big) shoes of moms we’ve been wearing.
Earlier in the week, we started collecting stories from the weeSpring community about the caregivers who love and support our families. We received an outpouring of heartfelt and moving responses, and we’ve selected a handful to share with you below. As always, thank you to the many contributors who help make weeSpring the amazing resource it is. We would not be here without you!
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I’m celebrating Dalila on Mother’s Day, because she is a wonderful caretaker to my two children and treats them as if they were her own. Dalila is from Nicaragua and is a single mom to a 4-year-old boy, who is also my son’s best friend. I hired Dalila when my son was only 2 months old, and shortly afterward, I discovered that she also had a son the same age and that she was struggling with her daycare situation, as she didn’t have any family or a partner to support her in raising him. My husband and I felt the logical thing to do would be for her to bring her son with her and to raise our boys together through infancy. So that’s what she did! Our sons were together every day from 3 months old to 2 years old. At that point, our daughter was born, and her son started in a preschool program near our home, though he still visits often.
Dalila and her son are truly an extension of our family, and we hope they always will be. Here’s to Dalila this Mother’s Day, for always being there to support us. We love you with all our hearts!
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This Mother’s Day I celebrate my Grandma Rose. A woman of strength, compassion and love. In August this wonderful woman will turn 100. She has raised three beautiful children, one of whom was severely handicap with Down’s Syndrome and my mother. For 56 years she raised this wonderful man after being told to turn him over to an orphanage. My mom never thought of my uncle as different, thanks to the way she was raised. For her and my aunt, Downs Syndrome was a way of life. My grandma’s ability to love someone different and to raise her two daughters to be accepting of all at a time where different was not accepted makes her a fearless women and a true inspiration. Because of her, my mother has taught all her children how to love endlessly, with no boundaries. I look forward to raising my children with the same fearlessness, strength, compassion and love.
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I’m celebrating my parents, my husband, and my son on Mother’s Day because I am the mother I am because of the way each one of these people has touched my life.
My mother and father taught me how to work hard and value what I receive in life. Each provided a unique model of what to do, and sometimes what not to do, to raise a unique but grounded individual. I am profoundly thankful for the lessons my parents have afforded me.
My husband is just amazing. I could never have imagined how much I would rely on him to help me through pregnancy and the post partum months. I was on bed rest for 15 weeks of my pregnancy, and I could not have maintained my physical or mental health without him. I have struggled with post partum rage and other hormone issues in the 6 months since birth, and he has never once judged or shamed me. He is an amazing father to our little boy, and he makes me feel good about the way I am a mother to our son.
I celebrate my son because he has made a whole new me. I have discovered a capacity for love I never knew possible. I have a new respect for time; there is never enough. I have learned how to really prioritize my life, and I am slowly learning to let go of things that don’t matter at all. My sweet baby greets me every time he sees me with a huge smile, and I am learning to do the same to people I meet. My life is a happier place, even in the midst of the hormone storm.
Everything has changed completely since I found out I was going to be a mommy. I owe all the good in that change to the four most important people in my life.
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My first Mother’s Day! Yes I seem to be waiting for ages to celebrate this day. Finally I get to celebrate this day. I’m over the moon.
But surely this day is not just mine. I am so sure that I wouldn’t have been here without my sister. This journey did not start the day my daughter was born. It started the day I conceived.
After struggling for 5 years to have a baby, I got the happy news from my IVF doctor. I was in bed rest for a while, my sister cooked my food, took care of the dishwasher and even gave me verbal support. My sister went to work each morning, came home, took her daughter to different activities and then came to my place to cook, clean and tidy my life. My pregnancy was full of complications and I was not allowed to drive. My sister took me to my doctor thrice a week .
I had an emergency c-section and my sister was there with me through this. My husband reached the hospital right in time, he works an hour away, meanwhile my sister was by my side, holding my hand.
After my 5 week preemie baby was born my sister still kept looking after me. When little baby came home from NICU she took few days off from work to help me. She often sat with the baby, attending to her needs while forcing me to take a day nap. Those were the days when I hardly knew if it was morning or night.
Every single day since then my sister is there for me and is more of a second mom than aunt to my eight month old daughter. On this Mother’s Day I can proudly say my daughter is lucky enough to have two moms in her life. On this note I should also add that she has a dad who is simply smitten by her, an uncle who loves her so much and a cousin who has given her the love which only an elder sister can.
Just want to take this special day and thank my sister for being a great mom to her daughter, to my daughter and a super sister to me. Love you!
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I’m celebrating the wonderful women at Grace Infant Care Center on Mother’s Day because for over 25 years they’ve provided high quality, loving childcare for working families in San Francisco.
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I’m celebrating my Dad on Mother’s Day because I couldn’t be the Mom that I am without him.
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I’m celebrating my mother, on Mother’s Day because although it is the “designated” person for this holiday, I truly need to celebrate and thank her every day. My mom watches my daughter three days a week, she does our laundry, cooks our baby food and often cleans our house. She commutes from the suburbs to downtown Boston so I can be in the office by 9a and doesn’t leave until after 5p some nights. She is truly saving my life at this time when my husband has a start up and we are both working like crazy!
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I am so happy and blessed to be celebrating my very first Mother’s Day. I’m also celebrating my brother-in-law Daniel, my in-laws Cathy and Dan, my husband Matthew, and my parents Barbara and Steve. My in-laws live close by, and all three are always ready and willing to come over to watch our 9 month old son, William. Whether it’s for a few hours on a weekday to get errands done, or to let my husband and I go out to dinner, they are here for us. We have yet to hire a babysitter! How great is that?! My husband works very hard so that I can stay home with Our son. And right now, he is in the kitchen cooking me dinner after a long week! My parents live out of town, but come up to visit every chance they can. They are a great source of emotional support for me, and help out as much as they can whenever they are in town. I wouldn’t be half the mom I am without all the love and support of my family!
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I’m celebrating Farys on Mother’s Day because she helps me get through every day by taking amazing care of my 16 month old twin girls.
