What makes me a Happy Mommy

Parent Bloggers Network's latest ”Blog Blast” campaign is in honor of Mother’s Day and inspired by Light Iris founder and dad Kevin who has been wearing a Preggo Suit all month long. Can he really actually be empathetic to what moms go through? I doubt it, but it's a sweet gesture. And is being a mom just about the actual having of the kids? Or the raising of the kids?

They ask: What is it that makes YOU a mom?

I know it's Mother's Day and all so you'll have to forgive me for my daddy centric answer. My husband, quite literally of course, enabled me to be a mom. But, obviously I could have been a mom using any old sperm donor. The thing is, I'm not just a "mom". I'm very much a Happy Mommy. I don't trudge through my days wondering when I'll get a break (usually). I don't wish my life were any different (again, I'm human and there are exceptions but you get the idea). I can not imagine anything more wonderful than the life I currently live. How did I get myself in this Happy Mommy situation? Quite simply, I picked the right guy.

What uniquely makes me the mommy that I am is the support I have from my main man (with my two little men). I've watched moms around me that do not have the same kind of double-team situation with their husband--who are nearly solely responsible for raising their kids--and I don't know how they do it.

The energy I have for being a mommy (getting up in the night, mopping vomit and feces off Target carts mid-shopping spree, playing 5 hours of one-on-one basketball a day, fitting work into the 3 free hours/day 3 times a week that I get, loving boys through potty talk expletives in public, being firm through big crocodile tears and high fevers, and diving head first into any kind of holiday or party theme for the fun I know the kids will have) comes directly from the emotional and physical space my husband provides by co-parenting with me (vs. watching from the sidelines).

Yes, he has a career outside the home. He's currently launching his own company and that means long hours (especially this past month) at work. But that's unusual for him. He's usually home for dinner and to play for hours before getting back on the computer after the boys are asleep to work into the night, something I do not know how he does. (And by the way, he has always split the nighttime wakings duty with me, from day one of both boys' lives). And lately, even through his midnight-at-the-office month he has managed to let me swim more mornings than usual (I gain incredible energy and mojo for the long day ahead from my pool visits), apologize profusely for not being home more (though no apology is needed), and stop in for quick scrimmages with the boys mid-afternoon when they least expect it. Sometimes a surprise twenty minute game with Daddy in the middle of the day is more valuable than an evening spent at home checking email as the kids run circles around him. I love him for understanding that and for making any time he has with the boys worthwhile.

I love my three boys so very, very much. But it's my Big Guy that truly allows me to be a Happy Mommy. So here's to him, as well as me (shameless self-congratulation) this Mother's Day.