A Mother’s Day Thanks to These Helpful Women

In honor of Mother’s Day on May 12, I would like to take a moment to recognize some of the amazing women who have helped me with motherhood lately.

But I don’t know their names.

I’m talking about complete strangers who have made small gestures that helped me save my sanity when my kids were wearing it down.

On Mother’s Day, I’m remembering these occasions:

• The time my 3-year-old took off running toward the street and I barely caught him before he reached the pavement, all while juggling a toddler on my hip. I heard a stranger shout out, “Nice catch! Way to go, Mom!”
• The time my 1-year-old threw a full-blown, screaming, lying-on-the-floor tantrum in the middle of a store because I would not buy her the candy bar she had swiped from the check-out line. Instead of making me feel bad about my screaming kid, a woman swooped in behind me, discretely took the candy bar and returned it to the shelf, thus letting me book it out of the store.
• The time my two youngest were having meltdowns in a parking lot and refused to stand up to walk to the car. I was struggling to lift two dead-weight kids when a lady appeared and helped boost each kid onto my hips.
• The time I had two kids arguing and picking at each other in line at Costco and I had to step in with my “Mean Mom” voice and separate them. An angel of a woman tapped me on the shoulder and said, “You’re doing a good job. Parenting in public is hard.”

Obviously, I will spend Mother’s Day celebrating the mothers among my family and friends.

But I also will be sending out a giant “thank you” to the universe for the women who take time to offer help or kind words to an overwhelmed mother in public.