There is nothing tastier than the food she cooks, nothing more comfortable than the home she makes and nothing greater than the unconditional love she gives. She is the mother.
If she is a home-maker, she has to be absolutely perfect in managing the home inside out, along with taking care of every need of those in the house because that’s ‘one thing’ she does and has to do perfectly. And if she is a working woman, she needs to build a proper balance between work and home where she manages both with utmost finesse because nothing less than perfect makes her an ‘ideal’ woman.
An epitome of perfection, sacrifices, and selflessness. But have you ever wondered what is behind this huge idol? Could there be a simple innocent girl unaware of all these highly-regarded places that she would ultimately be expected to adorn?
Was she told by anyone that one day she will be placed on a pedestal where she is the highest standard of giving and not expecting anything in return? Was she always this considerate? Was she born with this degree of patience that she now shows with all our carelessness and mistakes? Was she trained specially to take care of everyone’s needs without even caring for what her heart feels or wants? Was she prepared before she was shouldered with the countless responsibilities of looking after a home and its members? Or did anybody even care if she was ready for the noble deeds that she had to do to earn these titles of excellence? Was she made aware beforehand that she won’t be able to have any alone time for herself and she will only be a mother whose time is only dedicated to her kids and family? Was she allowed any room for mistakes before she as a mother was declared to be a representative of a faultless personality?
She might even have felt sheer loneliness at times in keeping up with so many expectations from her motherhood, but did she like or choose to be lonely like that? There were so many roles that she had to juggle and juggle without stumbling at all. Did she desire to split into so many personalities working tirelessly round the clock?
If you will try and answer these questions, you will start questioning if it’s just to glorify the mothers’ sacrifices and her selfless life that demanded nothing and only offered. It’s high time we reckoned that before being the goddess of selfless love, our mother might have been a regular human being who didn’t even opt for such a life. She might have wanted to live her own dreams but then she became a mother.
It’s high time we stopped glorifying all that she gave up to make us have a wholesome life and instead understood that it would have been equally fine if she had chosen to be a little selfish. It’s high time we understood that there is nothing divine in losing one’s own individuality in order to give other individuals comfort. Or we sympathized with her for killing countless of her big and small dreams because it was not possible to raise them along with her kids. It’s high time we stopped celebrating her sacrifices that she didn’t even choose to make but kept happily making because it was obligated to her. It’s high time we saw our other mother beyond that divine figure known only to give and looked at just an individual who should have been allowed to make as many mistakes as a human does and yet is appreciated. Happy mother’s day!