The Best Mother - and the Worst Mother

Today is Mother's Day. Every day should be Mother's Day. A good mother is the most valuable person in a child's life. A bad mother or a lack of a mother can have the worst possible effect on a child.

My Mother at 14, Lois Robison

Lois Robison Council

As we recently celebrated family with a gathering of my siblings and descendants of my parents, my mother's spirit was there, I know. I am convinced her purpose in life was to give her children the very best opportunity to live a happy life. She wanted me to grow up healthy because I had many childhood illnesses. She feared I would be hurt because I wore my feelings on my sleeves, and she saw how I could plummet to the depths of despair when someone hurt me. 

Like most mothers who love their children, she would have taken all pain from me and suffered it herself if she could. A good mother is selfless with her children. My friends said they wished she were their mother, not because she was easy on us, but because she was "motherly".

Not cut out for motherhood

I have seen women who don't seem to have the motherhood gene. A woman who lets a man come between her and her child is not a good mother. A woman who refuses to see that her boyfriend or husband abuses her child is a failure at motherhood.

Some mothers love their child, but don't enjoy their child. Mothers who can't show love, don't cuddle or hug a child, who are cold toward their child, teach them to be unfeeling and leave a lasting mark on that person. I have seen this behavior pass down through three generations. 

Unselfish Love

Mothers who love their children and show it, raise loving adults. That was my mother - the most loving person I have ever known. My sisters and I learned to love unselfishly. That is why on Mother's Day and every day, I think about my mother and what she did for me, gave me and taught me. Even now, after all the years she has been gone, I long to climb into her lap and feel her arms around me, smell the particular odor of her clean dress, her skin and the Ivory soap she used. Just a short time there cured most of my ills, and I am sure she would cure the sadness and sorrows of life now.

If I'd had children, I wanted to be exactly like my role model, the best mother in the whole world.