Mother’s Day seems orphaned and alone among the other important days on the calendar. A single day set aside each year to celebrate our mothers, but we all know the remarkable and unmatched contributions mothers have made, and still make in our lives. Things have changed over time, and mothers are cast in different roles today such as single head-of-household, soccer mom, stay at home mom, and solitary bread winner mom, among others; whereas, throughout history, it was commonly accepted that mothers represented the de-facto formula (2IC) Second-In-Command in the household, to fathers who worked outside the home to provide an axiomatic cashflow.
With the socially imposed separation of power came the separation of tasks and responsibilities. If mothers kept personal diaries, one wonders what would be revealed betwixt the pages. Moms may have written that reluctantly, the task of disciplinarian fell into their portfolio when fathers were away from home. With some reservation and with the whip or belt in hand, most moms exercised their 2IC authority from a mixed position of love and fear; love because she wanted her off-springs to grow up knowing right from wrong, and fear of the consequences we would face if we were not taught the difference. This writer, and many of us are among those who benefited from a mother’s occasional sternness in the assertion of her Second-in-Command powers, as self-discipline was certainly not one of my displayed behaviors. Thank you Mom. Today, this form of reprimand would be considered child abuse, and a need for immediate psychological counseling for the children; Just an observation.
Overall, I opine that in the diaries we would find their devotion, love, and commitment to their children; we would learn that it is from our mothers we gleaned how to love unconditionally, to comfort and care for others, to be honest, to be hopeful, to be mantled in faith, to have self-worth, to be patient with and be kind to others. We also would see those pages where they embraced our successes and took no credit for themselves, and on other pages they would scroll how they covered their pains and sorrows in silence so we would not see them. Amidst their many skills and tasks, moms would annotate their most cherished gift to us in the diaries, and that is how they introduced us to the Power of Prayer that has helped us forge an everlasting relationship with His Majesty King Jehovah, the Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth. Again, thank you Mom.
Traditionally Second-In -Command (2IC) mom or contemporary Dual Head-of-Household mom, the truth is that the ‘nurturing’ of the institution we call the Household comes to rest on her shoulders. Those admirable qualities we see in ourselves, and others see in us, did not come out of the mythical genie’s bottle, but from a profound and deliberate institutional leader called Mother, who by example, instinctively shaped our characters in every aspect of our lives. Please join the CAAAI family in respecting, loving, thanking, and wishing all Mothers past and present a Happy Mother’s Day, 2023. Look for a diary, who knows, there may be one somewhere.
Submitted By: Dr. Aubrey F. Bentham, President-CAAAI (Cambridge Academy Alumni Association International)
