One of the best things about being a mom is that you can keep a Barbie plate your kids haven’t used in decades in the cupboard, and nobody questions it, because it’s a mom thing.
Ditto the white McDonald’s socks you gratefully bought one hot summer day when your preschooler wanted to play in air conditioning but only had bare feet in pink foam flip-flops and the PlayLand rules required socks—socks that are now part of your sacred rag collection because it’s a mom thing.
See also, when moms tell their children to put more clothing on because they (the moms, not the children) are cold.
And when the family waits in the loaded car to leave on vacation while mom mops her way out of the house because NO WAY is she coming home to a dirty floor.
And when Christmas morning is on hold because mom hasn’t announced that it can start yet.
And when mom makes up her college student’s bed in their dorm room or her career kid’s bed in their apartment.
And when mom gets that blissful look on her face when all her people are in the same room, happy and healthy and getting along.
Mom things require neither explanation nor defense. They are accepted at face value because heaven knows, moms have earned the right to their things. (See, pregnancy, labor, potty training, driver’s training, teenage dating….)
Mom things do not have to make any sense to non-mom family members in order for them to be given their due. Mom things vary from mom to mom, but the thing they all have in common is the love behind them.
Love isn’t only a mom thing, of course, and thank goodness it isn’t. But mom love is a thing all unto itself, and when nothing else makes sense, it explains everything.
by Elizabeth Spencer