Mom Powers

My senses have gotten stronger since becoming a mom. I take in things I didn’t notice before, things a lot of people go their whole lives without appreciating. If you are a mom, and we’ve crossed paths, I want you to know what my new senses allow.

I see you, behind the curtain, working the long hours so that everyone else enjoys the show. I see the effort you are putting in for your husband, your children, your children’s friends, for the future of your family.

I hear you, mama, responding to your child when no one else heard them. and I hear you when you say you’re tired, you’re scared, and you need a day off. I hear the baby crying in the night.

I feel you, mama, carrying the weight, being the glue, and taking on more responsibilities. I feel your morning sickness, your aching feet, your tired back, your incision pain.

I taste in your meals the planning, shopping, budgeting, cleaning, cooking, cleaning again, thoughtfulness and consideration.

I smell the diapers, the milk, the stinky feet, and the morning breath that others don’t give a second thought to the needs these things mean.

I understand the love, the guilt, the joy, and the sadness that come along with motherhood.

I know it gets lonely, even though we’re going through it together.

Besides me and you and God, and those of us in the thick of it right now, there is someone else who sees and hears and feels and tastes and smells and understands and knows. 

I have a sense of her long hours, her behind-the-scenes, her “meaningless” conversations, her tiredness, her aches, her meals, her love, her sadness, her fear, her fulfillment. A small sense of it.

Someone who went through it before me, for me.

My own mom.

Thanks mom. I see you now.

*Owen frequently asks how I know he did something, or is trying to get away with something, or how something will play out. My response is “because I have mom powers.” After writing this, it took me a while to think of a title. Mom Powers seems fitting not only because I use that phrase in my own life, but because “power” usually refers to doing something that other people can’t, or having a special ability. I guess these “mom powers” are just enhanced senses. The more I think about it, the more relevant it is.*