3 Cheers for Mums on Mothering Sunday

I know I am not one for religious holidays but this one I don’t really mind. Back into the mists of time there has been a day on which motherhood was celebrated and this tradition has been absorbed in the Christian and now the secular calendar.

Being Irish we are proud of our mothers, but then again Irish mothers from all 4 provinces can be a tad on the over protective , indeed Ambrose Bierce, American satirist, may have been thinking of Irish Mothers when he thought of this definition :

“Sweater n: A garment worn by a child when the mother is chilly”

Now I come to think of it, it appear that stray chocolate sauce, tomato ketchup, mayonnaise, muck or snot can be removed with that mythical aqua omnia that is “mother’s spit”. Around the world when one of the little darlings is less than pristine facially the aforementioned sprog’s mother will reach for a Kleenex, hack noisely into it and then proceed to clean the offending material off junior with much sighing, ear holding and exhortations to “have more care in future”

The self same mother would, should one of her flock feel the need to expectorate which such public abandon, be “cut to the bone” (embarassed) by such foul and in-temperpate behaviour. A classic example of the first rule you find in my best selling non-fiction tome of 1996 “The care and upkeep of Mothers Handbook”

Against Mother’s Logic there is no winning – so don’t even try!

I am not one for mush and over egged sentimentalism however there are occasions when one has to do the right thing. So on this day where we in the British Isles celebrate motherhood I would like to salute the legion of mothers who daily put up with offspring that are infuriating, strong willed, badly behaved and when passed as “presentable” can be covered in muck 5 minutes later (yes I am talking about myself). To all those mothers and in particular my own who has for decades put up with me and my sisiters … WE LOVE YOU (but please no more spit in hankie face cleaning) 🙂

Fellow Irishman James Joyce said it best me-thinks..

Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world a mother’s love is not. ~James Joyce

Enjoy your day Mummies of the world!