by Erin Kathleen

Created on: April 13, 2008

Even after three children, many days I can still find myself wondering if I will ever know how to be a good mother.Try and try as I might, I will never be perfect at this job and it drives me crazy. But recently, a friend of mine pointed out some things that made me feel like I was pretty darn close. She reminded me what it takes to be a mother, and made me feel like I was a great one. Feelings like these need to be shared, especially with other mothers. So, for any mothers out there that just can't seem to figure out how it is that they are supposed to be naturally great at this job, let me remind you of a few things...

It takes an incredible amount of courage to not only give birth, but raise and care for a child. It takes even more courage to smell the dirty diaper of a breastfed baby, and go in anyways to change it. It takes strength to fight back the vomit trying desperately to make it's way out, as your eyes fill with tears and nose starts to run. It takes firm hands to hold down his little body, while it flops around like a fish out of water. It takes steady determination to keep from getting shot in the face with pee, and a strong stomach when you are forced to clean the 'mess' out from under your fingernails. It takes impossible skills to master fastening a diaper correctly on a wiggling child, and the same organizational skills to keep all the powders, pastes, and gels in order. And this is all just to change a diaper.

Keeping a clean and safe home for your child is no easy task either. It takes a magician to hide every remote, fork, battery, platic bag, button, and electronic device- yet still know where to find it when you actually need it. It takes great patience to explain eleventy million times to a child why the outlets cannot be used for fingers, fairy wands, army guy legs, or the skinny end of a spoon. It takes enthusiasm to accomplish the many tasks of cleaning up the same mess over and over, throwing away the same piece of trash over and over, finding the same sippy cup in the bottom of the toy box over and over, washing the same blanky over and over. It takes the slightest amount of crazy to be okay with the idea that if it's under the rug, behind the couch, or on top of the refrigerator... you'll clean it up later.

Let us not forget the demanding job of actually raising that child. It takes more imagination than was ever used when you were a child to come up with a new bedtime story each night, but that still includes the same princess with

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