Once upon a time there was a girl named Suzy. She was just a plain girl. She didn’t have any special talents or fancy degrees. She didn’t earn a paycheck and she didn’t do much that made a difference in the world. She was just a mom to four kids; Johnny, Andi, Jenny and baby James. She cooked meals, changed diapers, and washed clothes. She tried her best to teach her kids kindness. She didn’t let them watch too much TV. She played with them and helped them with their homework. And she ended each day more exhausted than the day before.
Suzy woke up on the morning of her 39th birthday determined to make this day meaningful. She crawled out of bed and made breakfast, got the kids up, started a load of laundry, loaded the dishwasher, dressed the kids, drove three of them to school, returned home, and put the baby down for a nap. She then took a cupcake from the refrigerator, put a candle in the top, lit it, and closed her eyes to make a wish. She wished she could change the world. She wished she were more important. She wished she were more than just a mom.
Suzy slowly opened her eyes and saw that everything was the same. The dishwasher was running, the baby was stirring in his sleep, and the timer on the washing machine was relentlessly buzzing. Suzy sighed, blew out the birthday candle and continued her day. She went to bed late that night after hastily mumbling her prayers... and she had the best dream.
She dreamed Johnny was all grown up and reading a bedtime story to his own little girl. She dreamed Andi was working part time as a tutor while studying to be a teacher. She dreamed Jenny was volunteering at a clinic for troubled children. And she dreamed baby James was a precocious middle school student standing up for the bullied kids in his class. In her dream, she told her children how proud she was of them and they said, “We are who we are because of you, mom.”
Suzy woke up the next morning and smiled to herself, realizing that her wish had come true. Being a mom is important. How she raises her kids affects the whole world and it’s the most meaningful thing she can do.
Never again would she describe herself as “just a mom.” She would ever hold her head high and say, “I’m a mom, and I’m raising the next generation.”
Some day it feels like my daily routine is not meaningful. But then one of my adult kids calls with a funny story and i hear the happiness in their voice and know it did matter after all.