Curious Parents Family Health Resources

Mom's Love
Publisher's Note

Nurses have a unique view into the lives of human beings.  They’re with us at the most vulnerable and needy situations in our lives – when we’re hurt or sick or dying.  At these times, life boils down to the essentials – the real person behind the veneer is exposed and our most basic needs and motives come to the surface.  Who do we cry out for at these times?  Mom. 

My own mom is a nurse.  She trained and served at a hospital in Montreal when the soldiers, sailors and aviators were returning from battlefields in Europe and Asia after World War II.  She treated the burn victims of Hiroshima when they came to her hospital for reconstructive surgery.  Later, as a stewardess for Air Canada, flying with Captains who had served in the air force in the war, they shared their battlefield dramas with her and the rest of the crew.  She noted a common theme in many of the stories – whether in a foxhole, a freezing life raft, a crashing plane, or an unfamiliar hospital bed, surrounded by strangers in a strange country, in times of  crisis, pain and death,  when the thing we need and want most is comfort, the biggest, toughest and most courageous of human beings will ask for Mom.  Even women during childbirth call out for their moms (in between the cursing of their husbands).

Why is it that the one person we need and want the most is Mom?  Perhaps it lies in the special love moms express by committing their lives selflessly to their children.  Moms do this in a way unmatched by any other person or role in our society.  We see it every day in the smallest ways.  Whether it’s using a precious vacation day to attend their daughter’s dance recital; giving up a career and education to raise children at home; denying themselves that special something – or even that necessary something so their son can take music lessons; dropping everything to give a hug and fix the skinned knee; reading the kids to sleep instead of sharing the relaxing evening with Dad; comforting words that balance Dad’s aspirations and demands; the envelope of money that arrives at college just when it’s needed most. These are the little sacrifices, the choices for child over self – offered every single day – that cumulatively communicate the unconditional love that makes us cry out for Mom.

And there’s no hand-wringing over what to do.  When faced with choices, moms know instinctively which way to decide.  Leaders should envy the sureness of purpose and decisiveness of a mom who’s doing something for their child. I have the privilege of two immigrant grandmothers, a Mom who is still healthy and vibrant, a mother in law who welcomed me into her family like a son, a wife whom I love and is a great mom to our children, 3 sisters and 3 sisters in law who are all moms, a staff at Curious Parents who are mostly moms and a readership of this magazine of around 700,000 moms – and I am in awe of their purpose, strength and capacity for love.

Why do we cry out for Mom?  Because her lifetime of choices for us instead of herself make us feel and know her love.  It’s a good feeling, it’s warm and secure and it’s rare to receive it from anyone else.  Celebrate the Moms in your life.  Find little ways (and big ones too if you can) to return the love and commitment that they give to the world.

John Piccone is the publisher of Curious Parents