Today is Mother’s Day. The one day a year, other than your mom’s birthday, that we celebrate the hard-working woman who raised us. Whether she’s your biological mom, stepmom, mother-in-law, aunt, grandmother or just some really cool lady who had a hand in your upbringing, one day a year really isn’t enough time to thank this lady for all the awesomeness she’s brought into your life, but it’s a good place to start. Here are 29 things you (I) should be thanking your (my) mom for, today and the other 364 days in the year. Throw in a hug and you’re golden.
1. Giving you life, duh
2. Changing your diapers and still wanting to talk to you almost 30 years later
3. Putting up with your screaming, crying, throwing up, diapers, etc. while you were a baby (and still wanting to talk to you almost 30 years later)
4. Putting up with your screaming and crying when you were a teenager and couldn’t get your emotions in check
5. Putting up with your screaming, crying and throwing up when you turned 19 and couldn’t get your alcohol consumption in check
6. Putting up with you. Period.
7. Teaching you how to cook/bake/do laundry/build Ikea furniture”whatever it was that she taught you that has come in hella handy now that you’re in your twenties
8. Being a role model for you to aspire to
9. Shielding you from all the bad things (and words) in the world, even though we have the Internet now and nothing is sacred
10. Hating the friends and boys that broke your heart, but still putting on a good face when you brought them around because breaking up is hard
11. Buying you new clothes like all the time for over 20 years, even though your closet was bigger than hers and she obviously needed new jeans more than you
12. Feeding you, clothing you, housing you, doing everything for you for the better part of your life
13. Being your introduction into feminism when she wouldn’t buy you Barbies for the entirety of your childhood (just me?)
14. Rooting for you, telling you how pretty you were inside and out during some of your most important formative years, even though you wouldn’t start to believe her until almost a decade later
15. Giving you sage words of advice, like “People change, and that’s okay” (even though you wouldn’t start to listen until almost a decade later)
16. Being there to answer the stupid but important questions that pop up in your twenties, like “How long is defrosted chicken good for?” and “How do I do my taxes?”
17. Being there to help you out when you can’t figure out how to do your own taxes
18. Not saying “I told you so” to literally everything she told you so, even though she’s probably thought it at least a thousand times since your teen years
19. Internalizing all of your work/friend/boyfriend drama like it were her own
20. Being there when you need her, and giving you space when you don’t
21. Bailing you out whenever you needed it, literally (kidding!) and figuratively
22. Accepting the people you’ve chosen to keep in your life (or keeping quiet if she doesn’t)
23. Baking things you like, even if she doesn’t (like 28 years of pumpkin pie, which my mom can’t stand)
24. Disciplining you at a young age so you can safely say you’re now a good person
25. Sharing every single article you write on Facebook (the 2016 equivalent of hanging your artwork on the fridge)
26. Helping you out whenever you needed it, whether physically, mentally, emotionally, financially
27. Teaching you right from wrong, teaching you it’s okay to make mistakes and teaching you that even she’s human and makes them, too
28. Decades of cookies, hugs, laughs and, now, margaritas
29. Loving you unconditionally, no questions asked
