Why I Love Being a Mom

Yesterday was my first Mother’s Day as a mother, and it was just wonderful. It reminded me how much I love being a mom. There are so many fabulous things about parenthood (and motherhood especially) that I never really understood until I became a parent myself.

There’s nothing else in the world like seeing a baby turn to you and light up with a smile.

Not because you’re bringing him a toy or a bottle, not because he needs a diaper change, not because he’s bored and wants someone to play with, but just because you’re his mom and he loves you. Nothing in life compares to that feeling.

There’s nothing else in the world that feels as peaceful as having a small, warm body snuggling close to you.

Having another human being feel so completely safe and secure in your arms that he relaxes every fiber of his body, content in the knowledge that nothing bad will happen to him while he’s in mommy’s arms. It’s an awesome feeling in the most literal sense of the word.

There’s nothing like watching your baby learn new skills and new ideas.

Seeing a baby grow and learn each day as he studies the world and makes connections and develops an undertanding of things as basic as distance and gravity and hand-eye coordination gives you a new appreciation for the complexity of the human body and brain.

There’s nothing like standing in the dark listening to the calm, relaxed breathing of a peacefully sleeping baby.

(Especially if there was weeping and wailing and screaming prior to the peaceful sleep.) Looking at the quiet perfection of a human being who was created inside your own body is unlike any other experience in life.

And best of all, there’s nothing like imagining the person that this baby will grow up to be, and knowing that everything you do will have a hand in forming that person. It’s a weighty responsibility, but also an incredibly exciting one. After all, this is a child who could become a doctor or researcher who cures a disease, a writer or poet whose words bring comfort, a dancer or actor who entertains people, the CEO of a company whose product or actions affect millions around the world, even the president of the United States. And most importantly, he might someday become a father, raising children of his own – and modeling his parenting after yours. Now there’s a weighty responsibility.