A Mother's day revelation

Yesterday was disturbing, I’ll tell you why. I am 31. Most of my ‘Friends’ on Facebook are around my age. Most of them are new mommies loving their new found love -  Motherhood. So yesterday was the most joyous day of the year for them. They were all over the page either patronizing their own mothers (and the forced inclusion – the MIL!) or self-proclaiming the fact that they were indeed the best moms. 

Before you start criticising me since I’m not a mother, I would like to add a little disclaimer here – This is my blog. These are my views. We live in a democracy. Atleast for now. So... you get the point, right!? P.S. I love you. I hope you still love me too!

Now I understand that each mother goes through a hell lot. She attends to an ungrateful baby who grows up to be the most thankless soul and runs away with a girl or a boy. She then spends the rest of her life trying to catch a glimpse of a person who was the centre of her life for 18 odd years. Some of us call our mothers once in a week and answer questions like what are we eating, how is the weather and if we are really telling the truth when we say ‘we are fine’. If she is in need, we would run to her for a week or two and do everything we can. But ask us to go and live with her for the rest of our lives and most of us will say NO!

Yet on mother’s day I see my timeline filled with immense love. Most mothers are not on Facebook. But that doesn’t deter my friends to let me know how much they love their mother. I can bet that half of them have not said ‘I love you, Mom’ ever in person. But on Facebook, their love knows no boundaries. Atleast they say it somewhere, some would argue. Well, I don’t understand those people!

Anyway, so I made a customary call to my mother yesterday. She started her usual rant by telling me all the troubles she was facing at home (which were really self-made). She went on for half an hour gossiping about family members and how stressful her life was. I gave her a good one by telling her to back-off and take a chill pill. I told her to read, play with the kids, go to the park and watch Comedy nights with Kapil. She started laughing and said that all was actually ok. I really did not understand if she was stressed or just taking my case.

After I hung up I thought to myself how annoying this was. Then I felt guilty of thinking like that about my own mother. I mean, everyone on my Facebook loves their mommy to bits! And here I was wanting my mother to stop the bitching and hang up. 

See I am not a bad daughter. I was always the favourite of everyone at home; including the extended family. I did my homework on time and got excellent grades. I dated a whole lot but never stressed my parents with the truth! I did not spend much, I took care of myself and got married into a family which was not into thinking that their son was a gold mine. I am not saying that my mother did not have a tough time dealing with me; in fact she had to handle a kid who had a certain amount of disability which made both of us feel guilty in some way or the other. But... this does not mean she would take revenge with me like this!

So, on belated mother’s day, I would like to ask the world – is mommyhood over-rated? Is loving your parents to a normal extent and not ‘infinity and beyond’ a crime? And do mommies really take revenge consciously? I know it is a hard fact to accept but I can guarantee that every mother has done her bit to laugh her ass off for keeping her awake at night when we were a baby. 

Just like my mother who is the best mom in the world (it is not hard to say this when I have no one else to compare her with!) whom I love to bits (again, do I have a choice?). Ok, ok, I really do. Promise. You can call her and ask.