Happy Mother's Day (belated)

   To all of you that are mothers - Happy (day after) Mother's Day!

   As a man, I don't think it is possible to fully appreciate a mother (even your own) until you have kids and see the sacrifices your wife, fiance, girlfriend, partner, colleague, or [insert other term for "mother of your child" here] begins to make from the day she finds out she is pregnant. As all of those of us fortunate enough to grow up under our mother's care know, this selflessness ends only when her own life does.

   I just glanced at an article in last week's (dated 5/14/2007) Newsweek about stay-at-home moms ("Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes" by Jennifer Ordonez [I can't find the tilde, sorry Jennifer!]) Two numbers displayed prominently in the sidebar struck me as particularly apt:
      "92 hours - the number of hours per week at stay-at-home mom works"
      "$138,095 - what a stay-at-home mom should be earning each year, based on the median national salary for the various jobs she performs, from cook to day-care teacher to psychologist"

   My wife has chosen to put her (business) career on hold to raise our kids, one of the main reasons we chose to move to Colorado and while realistically, in her line of work, she probably would not be making quite $138,095 if she was working, she works a hell of a lot harder at home than a lot of people I know that make much more than that figure. And as for time put in, 92 hours is definitely realistic, at least at our house!

   Anyway, my whole point was to encourage you to stop and really think about how many times in the course of your life your mom has put her life on hold to attend to yours. I didn't always appreciate my mom's influence in my life (particularly when in my teenage years I thought she was meddling!) but now witnessing my wife and her devotion to our kids reminds me constantly of the similar things my mom did for me.

   Here's to Mom!!