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Moms of Steel
By the laws of nature, men are stronger than women. I have decided moms are stronger than everyone.
Although I don't expect a 40-year-old mother to take gold in the 100 meters this summer, moms have a day-to-day strength that eclipses just about all men. I have seen a 100-pound mom carry three children, a loaded diaper bag and two bags of groceries up a flight of stairs in the rain. I have seen a mom run at the speed of light across the playground to catch a child (not even hers) mid-air who fell from the monkey bars. It seems that moms just have a way of doing the impossible when it comes to caring for their families.
You see this trait in just about every mom you ever meet. My next-door neighbor has pneumonia. Did she stop to rest? No. She just beefed up the antibiotics and Advil as she hosted more than 200 children and fathers for the annual PTA Doughnuts for Dads Morning. One of my best friends had open heart surgery. Did she get outside help? No. Just a couple of weeks after the most major of operations, she was juggling it all again - two young kids, a house and a full-time job.
It seems like a woman's DNA changes just a bit with the birth of a child. Women gain that eerie ability to tell a child's temperature with only their hand. Women gain the ability to know when their children are getting into trouble even if there is no sight or sound as a clue. Women gain the ability to run the family, the house and everything else even when they are sick with the flu and haven't slept in days.
Although, I don't always display the super human abilities of some of my friends, our house is no different. One week, we were all sick. Actually, our 18-month old was well. That meant while the rest of us wanted to sleep, she, like the Energizer bunny, kept going and going. My husband had a cold, our 4-year old had the flu (why did we get flu shots?), and I had strep throat. So through this week of sniffles, who cooked, who cleaned, who entertained the baby, who held hair and the bucket while the flu ran its course? I won't say who, I'll just let you guess.
And so let the laws of nature say what they want. We moms know that when it comes to strength, WWF has nothing on us.
Gigi appears every Friday on TriangleMom2Mom. Read more about Gigi at Stroller Lane.
Gigi Harrell
Gigi is a TriangleMom2Mom featured blogger, appearing every Friday.
She's a mom of two daughters, ages 4 and 1½.
Gigi’s path to a career in writing took the scenic route. She graduated
from Georgia Tech with a degree in Industrial Engineering and a
husband-to-be. After a few years of work and lots of play in
California, they returned to their roots in the South. They landed in
North Carolina where she graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with an MBA.
She worked in marketing for a large multinational company, but career
priorities changed with the arrival of her girls. She stepped off the
corporate track to start her own business. She now works full-time as a
mom and part-time running her business and writing freelance. Gigi
lives in Cary with her husband and two daughters balancing the havoc
and harmony of everyday life.
By the laws of nature, men are stronger than women. I have decided moms are stronger than everyone.
Although I don't expect a 40-year-old mother to take gold in the 100 meters this summer, moms have a day-to-day strength that eclipses just about all men. I have seen a 100-pound mom carry three children, a loaded diaper bag and two bags of groceries up a flight of stairs in the rain. I have seen a mom run at the speed of light across the playground to catch a child (not even hers) mid-air who fell from the monkey bars. It seems that moms just have a way of doing the impossible when it comes to caring for their families.
You see this trait in just about every mom you ever meet. My next-door neighbor has pneumonia. Did she stop to rest? No. She just beefed up the antibiotics and Advil as she hosted more than 200 children and fathers for the annual PTA Doughnuts for Dads Morning. One of my best friends had open heart surgery. Did she get outside help? No. Just a couple of weeks after the most major of operations, she was juggling it all again - two young kids, a house and a full-time job.
It seems like a woman's DNA changes just a bit with the birth of a child. Women gain that eerie ability to tell a child's temperature with only their hand. Women gain the ability to know when their children are getting into trouble even if there is no sight or sound as a clue. Women gain the ability to run the family, the house and everything else even when they are sick with the flu and haven't slept in days.
Although, I don't always display the super human abilities of some of my friends, our house is no different. One week, we were all sick. Actually, our 18-month old was well. That meant while the rest of us wanted to sleep, she, like the Energizer bunny, kept going and going. My husband had a cold, our 4-year old had the flu (why did we get flu shots?), and I had strep throat. So through this week of sniffles, who cooked, who cleaned, who entertained the baby, who held hair and the bucket while the flu ran its course? I won't say who, I'll just let you guess.
And so let the laws of nature say what they want. We moms know that when it comes to strength, WWF has nothing on us.
Gigi appears every Friday on TriangleMom2Mom. Read more about Gigi at Stroller Lane.
Gigi Harrell
Gigi is a TriangleMom2Mom featured blogger, appearing every Friday.
She's a mom of two daughters, ages 4 and 1½. Gigi’s path to a career in writing took the scenic route. She graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in Industrial Engineering and a husband-to-be. After a few years of work and lots of play in California, they returned to their roots in the South. They landed in North Carolina where she graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with an MBA. She worked in marketing for a large multinational company, but career priorities changed with the arrival of her girls. She stepped off the corporate track to start her own business. She now works full-time as a mom and part-time running her business and writing freelance. Gigi lives in Cary with her husband and two daughters balancing the havoc and harmony of everyday life.
Comments
I hope the lady with pneumonia didn't hand out the donuts! Eeeuuuw!
I can remember as a child arriving home from school and finding my mother sick in bed. It was as though the world had stopped. Moms are expected to just keep going.
The open heart surgery mother takes the award for most superhuman mom ever. Wow. Great examples, Gigi.