Being a Mother: Sacrifice or Blessing?

Rosa Martinez

HAVANA TIMES — Just a few days ago I thought about the sacrifices required of me as a mother.

I thought about what I haven’t learned and done since I gave birth to my two wonderful girls. For example, there’ve been many occasions when I didn’t go to the theater or the cinema because I didn’t want to be away from them, or because I didn’t want to disrupt their schedules or simply because I didn’t want to leave them with a stranger.

They’ve weighed on my mind on those many sleepless nights with their unexplained crying, their stomach aches, colds, pneumonia and even their spoiled behavior.

And what about those busy mornings, getting up early to take them to daycare and school, performing miracles to keep from hearing, “Mommy, I’m sleepy” or “I don’t want to today…I’m tired.”

I think about my running through the house every morning fixing breakfast, heating up their bath water, preparing their lunches, ironing their uniforms…in short, doing everything that Cuban mothers know is demanded of us on a school day.

The evenings are no different, with explanations of why the sea is blue, where grandma went when she died, why two times two is four, or simply why they have to do homework every evening.

And night, how can I describe those wonderful nights when they take turns sleeping in my arms or on my legs or would even lie on my head if they could…or those naughty looks that bring the  most desperate mothers out of their bad moods.

Plus there are the stories… Stories are another story, and I’m not usually the one who makes them up. They themselves come up with them between their half-truths, exaggerations and inventions when they tell me what they did while I was at work.

Sometimes I’m unable to avoid listening to them, while others times I have to make them tell me – but usually I just smile.

But most of all there are the kisses, the kisses and hearing “I love you, mommy.” Those are the things that make me remember that being a mother is no sacrifice. Motherhood is simply a blessing.

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