Some have said Mother’s Day is excessively advertised or exaggerated in its celebration.

Statistically, this holiday grosses almost more than any other holiday celebrated. So what’s the fuss about? Well, there should not be any fuss or any inkling of a thought that mothers should not be highly acknowledged on this one day.

In reality, the celebration of mothers should not be taken for granted, and it is the least that you can do to show some appreciation to a person who brings a life into the world. If you look at all that it takes to be a mother, you will bite your tongue and never allow such a thought to enter your mind.

The process of motherhood (an everlasting occupation) is so technical and tedious, that only a good mother can pull it off and make it look as though it is simple. The reason she can make it look so simple is because it is a natural instinct. It is something she learns from the time she feels life within her. Although it’s a natural instinct, a mother still goes through a series of changes that will last throughout her lifetime. The series of training a mother goes through starts with learning to appreciate a life as well as to deny a life.

She also learns to be patient, caring and nurturing. A woman knows little at the beginning that will become a part of her life as a mother.

She learns to appreciate life the moment she feels the little quiver of a movement within her, and she is amazed that she is carrying a living being.

A mother never gives a second thought to the fact that she has to deny a life, and that life is her own. She may have to deny herself the cigarette or cocktail drink that she once would enjoy at quiet times to relax. She might even have to stop a strenuous activity that would jeopardize her health that would also affect the life within her. She also learns to be patient as she awaits the long months ahead to see the life within her come to this world. She is patient enough as she goes through the minor aches and pains of the constant pain of her back hurting or her legs and feet sometimes swelling. To her, the pains she will endure as well as the time she waits only seem so small compared to the joy of bringing a life into the world. And lastly, she learns to be caring and nurturing.

She knows that these are traits that come from her natural instincts that God has built into her soul. The mom traits are embedded and already instilled in her mind that, without questions, she will show some special love and care to her child like only a mother can. After she passes her nine-month training, she knows it will be used as the basis for a lifetime of mothering.

When the baby comes mom knows that her work is cut out for her and that nothing can separate her from her child, not even death. Even after she has departed this world, her child will have everlasting memories of her. She knows that it is her responsibility, as God has chosen her, to pass on the training she learned through her sometimes stern instructions she gives to her child.

Her continuous prayer is that her child heeds to her instruction and benefits from it. She will know that she has done a good job when her grown child says “thank you mom.” Not only will her child show appreciation, but her husband too. And so, we should never let it be said that the celebrations of Mother’s Day is advertised excessive or exaggerated. We must give credit where credit is due.

In reality, you can never repay a mother for what’s she has done for you. So this Mother’s Day salute your mother as only you know the magnitude of her worth.

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers, expecting mothers and also to fathers who had to be the mother too.

Beverly Gibson is a Ferriday resident.