This Mother's Day, celebrate the magic in the mess

Motherhood is messy.

Every mom knows that. We also know the magic is tucked right there in the mess.

This year, it’s even messier, with the coronavirus turning moms into teachers over night. On top of fixing breakfast, lunch and dinner, doing laundry, looking for missing socks, going off to work or staying home to complete a thousand other chores, now moms are teaching science, reading and math.

I’m amazed at how well my daughter adapted overnight to teaching her three kids, ages 6, 8 and 11. She turned the family room into a classroom, complete with wipe boards, lesson plans and stacks of books.

Motherhood is full of detours. You overprepare then go with the flow. Some days it’s a trickle, some days, a flood that threatens to drown everybody.

We’re all treading water. We’re all doing the best we can on any given day.

My gramma did the best she could, even though she could never read or write English. An immigrant from Czechoslovakia, she raised five children on a farm and earned money cleaning houses.

My mom did the best she could, even though we outnumbered her 11 to 1.

I did the best I could, even though I was a single mom who worked full time for 18 years.

My daughter is doing the best she can, better than I ever did, even though she has to serve as a full-time teacher to all three.

Every mom is doing the best she can, and most days, that best is a moving target, especially now during this global pandemic.

I laugh ever time someone posts a Facebook message, like: “Home schooling is going well. Two students suspended for fighting and one teacher fired for drinking on the job.”

Or, “If you see my kids locked outside today, mind your business. We are having a fire drill.”

And this, “If you see my kids crying outside and picking weeds just keep on driving. It’s just a field trip.”

You try to create a COVID-19 Daily Routine to harness the crazy, but the chaos stampedes all over it. I saw one humorous post with an original schedule listing things like, Wake up, Morning time, Academic time, Creative time, Chore time and so on. I was tempted to send it to my daughter until I noticed the column next to it: “Woken up by kid in your face saying sibling said shut up…Everyone cries…Spill glitter. Cry again…Count how many times kids ask you when quiet time is over.”

Yes, everyone will cry. Even you.

Yes, there will be glitter everywhere. And gum. And crushed Cheerios. And those damn LEGOS attacking your feet every step of the way.

And one day, all of that mess will be over. All of this chaos and craziness will be the memories you laugh over and the stories you tell and the gifts that made you stronger.

That plus sign you saw all those years ago on that pregnancy stick? It meant baby plus everything else. Madness and messes and magic and mystery. That’s what makes motherhood so challenging and fulfilling, so awful and so awesome.

You really wouldn’t want it any other way, would you?

Even if you do hear your child say, “I hope I don’t get the same teacher next year.”