The Making of a Good Mother

What makes a good mother? It is a pertinent question whose answer cannot be contained within a few words. Motherhood involves a bundle of emotions that sometimes defy reason. Words are not enough to describe what a good mother is and it takes one to know one. But perhaps seeing how my wife is doing it to our children is my own way of telling how good mother she is to our children.

I remember seeing my wife whom couldn’t restrain tears from trickling down her cheeks each time seeing and holding our baby the first time in her arms after giving birth. The cut umbilical cord separates a child from the mother after giving birth but not the emotional bond that infinitely ties every mother to her child. A kind of affection that continues to grow in the passing of years.

I grope for words to describe a scene seeing how my wife in countless nights reads bedtime stories to our sweet angels who still insist to read it again. "Just one more time, please." How she taught our children to tie the shoelaces even before they started going to school. Seeing her awake all night with our sick child in her arms constantly uttering those compassionate words. "Its ok baby, mommy's here."

A mother is God’s gift to a child in the same way how thankful an expecting mother for being blessed to have a child that she labors inside her for nine months. Mother is also God’s unique creation. Weak and so gentle yet capable of doing things beyond our imagination. I remember one time how my wife dashed from her office to school in no time to attend our two daughters who were about to render a presentation. Defies all odds just to watch our children’s performance, shouts from the crowd, “that’s my child!” and backed to office as if nothing happens. A kind of feat hard for me to beat.

Motherhood at times can turn life’s bloopers into fun. Showing up for work with milk stains on her office uniform can just be a normal thing for a working mother like her. I couldn’t help but laugh on her story on how she discovered a used feeding bottle while inside a public transportation on her way to work.

I can see the making of a good mother in her ways of drawing the line between love and discipline without losing love altogether. How she says ‘NO’ to our children when they clamor for ice cream before dinner but silently shed tears for rejecting their pleadings. Mother’s instinct defies the limit of biological affection every time she incontinently turns her head when she hear the word "Mom", even though she knows that her kids are nowhere around. A mother whose heart aches to watch our preschooler on their first time at school as our youngest disappears down the hallway walking to school alone for the very first time. How fear for the safety of our own children envelopes a mother who sat in front of TV watching an accident involving children and immediately clings to our child who just arrived from school safely.

So if you will ask me what a good mother is? I will answer it describing this special person in my life. A woman I call Jembie, my wife for 16 years that without whom life would have been insufferable.