Our Mother’s Day Series continues with Makeba G. of MELISASource.com. She is someone who I met during a twitter hop and let me tell you, she is a breath of fresh air! Always posting something uplifting and you can feel her smile through her posts! Please welcome her as she shares with our Houseful her thoughts on motherhood. 

For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to be a mother. As a child, I did remember doing more for my dolls than the average little girl would do. I sewed clothes for them by hand, using scraps from my mother’s leftover material that she had lying around from her sewing projects. Since I had two beds in my room, the other one was their dwelling space—never my toy box or a shelf. I had all of the ‘unnecessary accessories’ for them that a little girl could ask for, and whatever my parents chose not to buy, I did my best to make myself. See, in my eyes they were not just dolls—they were my babies. And as their mother I felt that it was my role to keep them looking their best and safely tucked in bed every day and night.

In my little-girl mind, I thought that was the only thing that being a mother was about.

Fast-forward to today, and now my four ‘babies’ are running around and bustling about; yelling at each other, eating everything in sight and calling or texting me every two minutes to ask for something or tell me about some last-minute item they need for school. If they are all in the same place for more than an hour (minus the car rides) then it is a miracle. When they were little babies it wasn’t as hard: I bathed and dressed them, drove them to the sitter and went to work, picked them up at the end of the day, drove home, fed them and prepared them for bed. No sweat. It wasn’t until they grew older that I found out how challenging and stressful motherhood can be.

My four children are in four different age ranges: one is about to enter college, one just entered high school, and there is the elementary student and lastly the toddler. These are four vastly different dynamics—and that is why I oftentimes feel like I am four mothers instead of one.

Because of the wide age range between my children, I remain in a constant state of shifting my communication and parenting methods back and forth: I cannot talk to my eighteen year-old the same way that I talk to my ten year-old, and I can’t handle my five year-old the same way as my 15 year-old. Each of them are going through their own major life stages, and I must always be sure that I am giving an equal share of guidance and attention, all while trying to remember everyone’s teachers, friends(and their parents), school functions and extra-curricular activities, homework projects, etc. etc. etc.

It takes true diligence just to keep up!

Then there is the emotional aspect. There are moments of worrying if the oldest will do well once in college; or if the youngest is getting enough nutrients in their diet. There are the sleepless nights of going to bed frustrated and the mornings of driving to work angry or hurt because of something that has been done or said by one of them. Although these times are plentiful, they are balanced with the times of excitement hearing that they got an ‘A’ on a big test, and the joys of seeing them succeed at trying something new or winning a game. I can honestly say that motherhood truly defines the term ‘emotional rollercoaster’.

Being a mother of any amount of children of any age is hard work. And I am a witness that the more children that you have, the more challenging that it becomes—indeed a far cry from those days of simply dressing my dolls, putting them in the bed and then going happily about the rest of my day. Over the years I have learned that it takes the patience of Job, the courage of David, and the strength of Samson to be a mother. It has tested me beyond my limits and has caused me to feel emotions that I never even knew I could feel, both good and bad. Yet in spite of all of this, out of all of the roles I have ever held in my life, I cannot think of one that I have ever been more proud of or more happier to be.

For me, being a mother without a doubt is the toughest job that I’ll ever love.

BIO:

Makeba Giles is a WAHM and the author and creative director of MELISASource.com, and inspirational blog. You can enjoy more of her adventures as TheBusyMom by visiting her website. You can also find her on Facebook.