NOTHING SURPASSES A MOTHER’S LOVE
THE female body produces a certain bonding hormone called oxytocin during birth. Also called the love hormone, it is said to promote social bonding and is responsible for the unique and strong bond that nature bestows between mother and child.
Have you noticed how, when you are getting older and become a parent yourself– you realise and have a deep understanding and appreciation for why our mothers never stop parenting us?
OK, as we do get older, our mothers become our children to some extent as we often teach them the latest lingo, how to register their Facebook accounts or how to use Whats App and all kinds of new technologies that they are generally scared of.
In many instances, we also become their financial advisers and lawyers, whether we have law degrees or not. Oh, and don’t forget the soundingboard duties where they now become the ones who want to spend hours on the phone telling us everything, from fights within the family to the latest happenings with abomakhelwane.
Lord spare mothers with the knack of always calling you on deadline and many a times you have to listen to them with one ear as you are busy trying to multi-task, as cutting them off from these conversations that sustain them is just not done.
Yes, our mothers grow up to become our kids and that is just the nature of things. Despite that they do not stop worrying about us since, in their eyes, no matter how much we are empowered and have become adults, we still remain their little girls.
This is about that special bond between mothers and daughters and how, despite becoming frail, they still meddle in our lives with love.
A colleague tells me her mother has not stopped buying her a tea-set every year since she turned seven. Back then, the mom was preparing her wedding trousseau by starting her early.
Yes, this is the mom who will make sure they will buy you half of the utensils and furnishings you need in your house long before they even know umkhwenyana. They will buy all the Tupperware and AMC pots. Lord forbid when they start you with the curtain, towel and bedding collection. The dilemma here is what they are buying is almost always never your style but, dear daughter, it is your duty to navigate the sensitivity of rejecting this labour of love. A friend says she hangs those organza curtains that our moms swear by only three times a year during mom’s visits. This way everyone is one big, happy family.
My mom has this thing for buying me and my sister eggs. The breast milk may have dried up ages ago but it is her way to ensure that at least there is one food item of nourishment in our pantries she contributes to. Lately we give her all the kudos by calling her every month end to remind her of this duty. You should see how happy she becomes to dispatch people to our houses, which are roughly over 50km away from her.
I laugh at the creative plans she makes to get people to drop off the tray of 60 eggs, often spending more money transporting these eggs than on the actual items.
I have met similar mothers like her at airports during my travels, having trouble with immigration officials because they insisted on smuggling that dried fish or other home comforts to their children in foreign lands when they visit.
Indeed, a job of a mother is never done. In this August month, as we celebrate the women who have shaped us, we also say thank you to all the mothers who do not stop loving us.
“They do not stop worrying about us since, in their eyes, we remain their little girls