A few days before Mother’s Day, Ann Romney wrote a piece in USA Today about motherhood, including a section on her own mother, and her experience raising five boys.
Some excerpts:
It’s hard to imagine now, but before the birth of my first child, I had never held a baby. Not once, not in my entire life. No baby at home to tend, no niece or nephew to babysit. So you can imagine, the day my first boy was born I felt woefully unprepared.
My mother took pity on me and stayed for two weeks, but that wasn’t nearly enough time. As she was preparing to leave, I cried like I was the baby. I told her that I wasn’t ready, that I had no idea what to do. In her smile I saw the truth. Ready or not, my son couldn’t wait, and somehow, I would make it through.
Of course, she was right. Some might say it was the mothering gene kicking in, the same one that every mom throughout history has possessed. Maybe. But I don’t think so. I was a good mom because my own mom was the best.
…
On Mother’s Day, Mitt always brings me lilacs, a tradition he started the year I became a mother. When our home is filled with their fragrance, it reminds me of so many things, and stirs so many emotions. I think of my five sons and the women they married, whom I love as if I had raised them. They have become my daughters.
…
Cherish your mothers. The ones who wiped your tears, who were at every ball game or ballet recital. The ones who believed in you, even when nobody else did, even when maybe you didn’t believe in yourself.
Women wear many hats in their lives. Daughter, sister, student, breadwinner. But no matter where we are or what we’re doing, one hat that moms never take off is the crown of motherhood.
There is no crown more glorious.
The pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future took a darker approach to Mothers’ Day with a video that delves back into the “war on mothers” they allege the Obama campaign started when a Democratic strategist, who does not work for the campaign, made comments about Ann Romney on CNN.
