I came up with the Treasured Mamas contest because I wanted to uncover new ways to treasure and honor those who are raising, educating and mothering the children of this world. It's work that often goes unnoticed. Being a parent is often seen as a side gig, a nights and weekends kind of thing. It's extra. We're supposed to do more. Raising children is not seen as that important, and it's not seen as enough. So there's not real appreciation. And here's the thing. Any gratitude we get from our children is always so sweet and so adored. Do you have any idea how many little random pieces of paper I have kept that just have little scribbles on them from my kids? Random assortments of letters, little lines and circles. And the hugs and love and "you're the best mommy"?! Oh my. I'm not at all talking about appreciation from my children. They can't even really have any idea of what they should appreciate or why. They have no concept of how many children are living in terrible homes and situations. And they don't need to. When I speak of treasuring and honoring, I speak of our families, our communities, and our societies.
In all honesty I believe our communities should come together to support each family financially to allow for one parent to stay home with each child. Protecting and nurturing children should be our highest priority as a species. We all benefit from living among people who were loved and nurtured as children, and we all suffer from living among people who were neglected and abused as children. Supporting parents is crucial. At the very least we can respect and honor parenthood for what it is - sacred work. We can offer our love, encouragement, time and treasure to those who are in the trenches day after day. Let me tell you. Mothering is unimaginably rewarding. It's also unbelievably exhausting and difficult.
I didn't get a lot of entries for this, and while I know that is partly because this was my first contest, and I'm still a plankton, it's also partly because people don't have a lot of stories to tell since it's not something we see in our culture much. Of the three, two were about the kind of women that do get honored on occasion, those amazing and selfless women who just give and give to their own children and then those who have been abandoned, and all the children of the community as well. I don't know how they do it. I don't know what they're made of. They're incredible, and they really should get the honors that are bestowed upon them. Those were submitted as a post by 
What I really wanted to see, though, was a story of an everyday mom being honored, a story of appreciation for somebody just huffin through it day in and day out. That's why I chose 
So, I have some thoughts about how we can do this on a larger scale. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess you know a mom. I bet you even know a mom well enough to know what might help her out. Everyone is different. Every stage of motherhood is different. If you know a mom with young kids, offer to take the kids for a couple hours or a couple days. Drop off a gift card for a manicure or pedicure or a kid friendly restaurant or a bowling alley. If you know a mom with older kids, maybe a couple tickets to a theme park or gift card to one of those arcade and pizza places. Hell, drop off a bottle of wine. Most importantly, tell her how much you appreciate her and that you see how hard she's working, how much she loves her children and is trying to do her best for them. Tell her you're grateful for someone putting so much into raising up the next generation in a good and thoughtful way. Tell her that you notice how awesome her kids are. Few things a mama loves more than other people praising her babies.
Treasure the mama's and watch the world bloom. Lot's of love, y'all.