What goes around comes around.  We’ve all heard that saying right?  Does it worry you as much as it does me?

No?  Then you must have been a really well behaved teenager.  Or maybe you don’t have two young daughters of your own.

I think I was an okay kid.  I don’t remember very much of it.  But what I do remember is being a teenager. *Cringe*

I remember shouting, dressing inappropriately, slamming doors, being miserable, breaking curfew and not listening to a thing my parents said.  Everything was the end. of. the. world.

I also remember my Mother.  She tired to be patient.  She tried to be kind.  When that didn’t work, she tried driving around the neighbourhood in her bathrobe at 2am, looking for her rebellious daughter.  Her wild one.  Then, she prayed.  A lot.

Motherhood is not an easy job.  We’re never sure the right move to make with the hand we’ve been dealt.  Often there’s no time to ponder our decisions. We need to act and react, and hope what we’re doing doesn’t land our kids in years of therapy down the road.

There’s no manual.  No rule book.  There’s friends, there’s family, there’s faith and everything else is kind of a crap shoot.

Are we doing a good job?  Who knows?  But we’re doing the best damn job we know how.

There were a lot of bullets dodged in our house during those adolescent years.  No hospital visits, no criminal records, no teenage pregnancies.  I even came out on the other side with a few university degrees, a husband and a couple of kids.  In that order to boot!  I guess my Mom didn’t do too bad of a job on me after all.

Now it’s my turn.  I’m nervous.  That’s a lie.  I’m terrified.

In the years to come, will I find myself trolling the neighbourhood at an ungodly hour, ready to kidnap my daughter from her pack of friends?  Will I threaten to phone the bar, and tell them about my daughter’s fake ID that I know she has but I can’t prove?  Will I ground her from her first boyfriend and take away her phone?  I haven’t got a clue.

What I do know is that even though I’m a Mom, I still need my Mom; and all the other Moms in my life.  We support each other in this selfless, eternal extension of our hearts.  We’re sisters, in it together, on this crazy roller coaster ride of motherhood.  We can understand each other in a way that only another Mother ever can.

We may think someone else is doing a better job than us.  We may think we’re screwing everything up.  But at the end of the day, being a Mom is the hardest, best, most under-appreciated, completely awesome job there is.  And if you’re doing your best; well, that’s perfect.

So to all the Moms out there:  My friends, my family, my sisters in the amazing adventure of motherhood.  Raise a glass, here’s to you.  You are the best!

Thanks for everything Mom.  I love you.

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