Happy Mothersday!

Mothers' Day is a holiday in Costa Rica, and I mean a holiday full on holiday stuff. It gets red ink in the calendar, has stores preparing like crazy for it, and you don't have to go to work on mothers' day - unless, of course, you are employed in the private sphere in one of those low wage jobs, that shamelessly pays you under the minimum wage, and then the employer has the nerve to say that regulations to enforce minimum wage are meant to keep people unemployed - which is why I'm not particularly happy that today happens to be Sunday.

I'm still not keen on the whole mothers' day thing, particularly in a country that pulls such a celebration out of it, but forgets about Women's Day. The blatant chauvinism of this really gets to my nerves, since it suggests that women per se are not important at all, our struggle to be recognized as equals is meaningless, but motherhood - ah Motherhood! - is that one thing that makes a woman worthy.

I find it also quite phony the way everywhere there are slogans and commonplace lines tagged to commonplace pictures of women with babies and pregnant women along with "being a Mother is the greatest gift of all". Is it? Because most mothers I see with their offsprings look like they just want to give away or kill the little mongrels bouncing on them. The kids don't keep quiet, they are noisy, demand stuff, fight, throw temper tantrums... and I am not speaking of working mothers only, who excuse themselves with "having not enough time for this" and "doing their best", but also stayhome moms who would rather watch the tv or research his partner's phone and MSN contacts for possible evidence of cheating.

So it is a gift, or it's a burden, something planned to keep a man at their side, made so they have something to do, made so that they comply with social expectations, or just happened and didn't have the guts to kill the baby before it gets born, but brought it here and suffer his or her existence until the kid finally gets old enough to run out of the house and curse the day someone or something made him or her born from such a harpie.

Motherhood is not a gift, it's a state and not everybody is fit to it. Motherhood also is detached from carrying and giving birth to a child, as many women have kids but are less of a mother to them than any stranger, and then there are other people, men and women, who having no children of their own, for whatever reason, can be more of a parent, more of a mother to a child, a grown up person, an animal, than anyone else.

In my and my brother's particular case, we have been blessed with a Mom who is not only our natural birth mom, our genetic mom, but also a Mother to us. She has supported us to the best of her capabilities, has protected us the best she always could, and had time for us, so play, draw, study and tell us bedtime stories. My mom has never been frugal with kisses and hugs, in public or in private, and always knew how to say those delicious nothings that warm one's heart. You know, just sounds that have no meaning listed in a dictionary, but in the heart they mean "you are so precious to me and I love to to death and beyond".

Not every mom is like my mom, that's a fact, which is why I'm so happy that she's my mom.

I also have another mom, my surrogate.mom, so to say, who is my best friend's mom, Marcsi. She's my mom in Hungary. Like my real mom, she also loves me a lot, and I love her a really lot. She cares for me, and always has a kiss and a hug ready. Her smile is always so bright when you see her, and her bosom so warm you want to just be there for ever and never leave her embrace.

I had yet a third mom, who is my mom's twin sister. She never had children, but her knowledge and skills in being a mom surely put to shame those of many experienced moms.

To all my moms, as women who deserve our respect and admiration, Happy Mother's Day!