Moms Are Magic: Happy (Early) Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day is quickly approaching (friendly reminder to all of you that still need to buy gifts or mail cards) — the moms of the world hopefully won’t have to remind you to celebrate them. They will probably advise you to bring a sweater because, at any given moment, it could get colder, and they have the mom-Jedi-magic ability to detect any slight breeze. In all seriousness, I think mothers deserve a whole month of celebration, or at least more paid time off (looking at you, America). I think the moms who have survived living with young children during this pandemic deserve a standing ovation and an auto-renewing massage membership.

I caught up with some of my friends with children during the pandemic. One woman had her kind, loving husband offer to go to the grocery store for her. While suggested as a warm gesture, my friend remarked that grocery store time was her time — she needed that time to get out of the house. The other moms enthusiastically agreed and empathized. It turns out that a lot of moms out there are having their “breaks” picking out cereal and pushing shopping carts around. We all laughed about this, and I pictured some of my friends using their seemingly stolen moments to tip their hat to the Quaker Oats man or check in with Toucan Sam. I imagined moms zoning out in brightly lit aisles trying to keep it all together.