Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Moms are modern-day superheroes

Freedom New Mexico

The words of poets and preschoolers alike are used today to sing the praises of the pillars of our families, the

cornerstones of our households: Mom.

Mothers far and wide will receive hand-made cards from their little ones, with “I love you” scrawled in various Crayola hues. And the words of Irish writer James Joyce (1882-1941) may have been spoken long ago, but they remain true: “Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world, a mother’s love is not.”

Mothers don’t work in uncertainties. They operate in absolutes. “You will clean your room.” “You will take out the garbage.” “You will not tease your sister.” “You can do anything you put your mind to.”

They are our greatest motivators, and our most steadfast cheerleaders. We toil to succeed not only for personal achievement, but also for our mother’s pride. There is no greater reward than her smile.

Back in the 1970s, an ad for Enjoli perfume contended mothers could bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan. The evolution of our economy requires many women to juggle work and home responsibilities to help make ends meet, so that jingle rings true more now than it did then.

We are at a point in our society when many moms are holding down the household on their own. According to the U.S. Census report “Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Child Support: 2007,” there are about 13.7 million single parents in the United States today, and 84 percent of single parents with custody of children are mothers. Of those custodial mothers, almost 80 percent are employed, half of them holding full-time jobs — other than the primary profession of “mom.”

As writer and university professor Jane Sellman said, “The phrase ‘working mother’ is redundant.”

How right she is.

As we grow older, our relationship with our mothers shifts a bit, but at its core it remains unchanged. As Toni Morrison wrote in her novel “Beloved:”

“Grown don’t mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown? What’s that suppose to mean? In my heart it don’t mean a thing.”

We encourage young and old alike to take time today to let Mom know just how much they care about her.