Every waking moment, Moms work hard to meet the demands of our families and our professions.

We are making great and also granular decisions every single day that set our children, our families and our places of work up for future success. Additionally, we are charged with the task of teaching our children how to respond to failures and life’s disappointments. And at the same time, we must do the very same for ourselves. I am convinced that all women, especially mothers, were created with an internal alarm clock reminding us of the hundreds of actionable items that we must deliver on daily to make our personal and professional lives perform like a well-oiled machine.

In addition to this internal alarm clock of performance, women have an innate desire to serve others, and the overwhelming aspiration to perform at high levels for our peers and members of our family.

We don’t always hear the tick-tocking of this internal clock because it has become our natural rhythm. What we do hear are the concerns of our colleagues about projects that need completed, the silent expectations from our husbands who maybe want their favorite home cooked meal we used to make before you we got so super busy, or our own voice of unreasonable expectations to have the floors swept and laundry folded.  But more than anything, we see joy in our children’s eyes when we read them a book or take time to dance silly with them in the kitchen and how they just want one more minute of our time.

Then we go to sleep, and wake up the next morning only to repeat the exact same day all over again. We are killing it at work, then killing it at the grocery store while our heels kill our feet. (Seriously, can’t someone please design a stylish heel with the comfort of a sneaker?)  And then we go home, and kill it at home as we squeeze in one more round of tickles, two more bedtime stories, maybe a short back rub to let our husbands know they are loved and appreciated. While in the back of our mind, we are starting a long list of to dos so that today can be documented as a “win” if we prepare to keep our heads above water tomorrow.

So why do we do it?

Love. That’s why we do it. We know that everything that is good in this world, started with a mother’s love. We are moms on a mission and we have a secret weapon for changing the world if we choose to ignore and rise above the voices of those who say we can not have it all. When we love in the moment, whether that is helping a stranger reach something at a grocery store, when we help our kids with the same puzzle we’ve put together 147 times, when we stop to value the ideas of our peers or when we choose to sit beside our husbands during their favorite show in the living room even though we just want to climb into bed and close our eyes. These are the moments when we make the world better, with love.

 

We might feel under-appreciated occasionally. And many times, people will underestimate us… Oh, will they ever underestimate our ability and drive. But modern mothers are on a mission to change the world, one child, one husband, one colleague and one friend or stranger at a time. Our mothers made their mark, now it’s our time to make ours.

So remember Mommas, when you are feeling exhausted or wonder if your love is making a difference, we have all been there before but know this: yours is the hand that will rock the cradle that will rock the world. So, keep a rockin’ it, ladies. The world is better because of your sweet love.

Christina Hagan-Nemeth