MOM ’ S wtohred

The moment I became a mother, my life changed. I had a new baby—a crying, red-faced (and red-haired!) little girl—and when they swaddled her and put her in my arms, I looked into her cloudy slate-blue eyes and was forever transformed. Except not completely. The surprising thing I noticed in that moment, and in the days and weeks that followed, was that I was still very much myself. I hadn’t grown to be more mature or stern. I hadn’t given up my sense of humour or my penchant for bad reality television. Yes, I was a mother, but I was still the same person I had been up until that point.

That small epiphany (the first of many) led me to view my own mother in an entirely different light. When I was growing up, she had been the stalwart voice of reason, the enforcer of rules, the brusher of hair and the setter of curfews. All through my childhood and adolescence, I had viewed her as only one thing: a mom (which, I’ll admit, had a bit of a stodgy connotation for me). After Adelaide was born, I realized my mother was more nuanced than my own narrow perception of her. She was a woman, a lawyer, a book lover, a great conversationalist, a fount of wisdom and 1,000 other things beyond that.

Since then, my mom and I have grown closer than ever. She’s told me more about her experience raising me and my three brothers, and we’ve bonded over the joys and frustrations of parenting. But on top of that, we talk now as peers, as two women with mutual admiration and respect for each other—not just as mother and daughter but also as friends.

This May, I’d like to use this space to say thank you to my mom for her endless support and sage advice, and to honour all the mothers out there, for being incredible parents and also for who they are beyond that role. Moms are teachers, nurses, counsellors and chefs to our kids, but we are each so much more as well.