A tribute to the moms of young children

Today is Mothers Day, our chance to honor the women who brought us into this world.

On this Mothers Day, I'd like to pay homage to the mothers of young children, mobile children who have one speed: on.

It's not that these mothers are any more deserving than any others. It's just they are down there in the trenches, where it's all mom, all the time. They don't get much down time.

So for those moms of babies, toddlers and preschoolers, a special mom bouquet. Here's:

• To the years spent with a child or two, or three, hanging onto your ankles.

• To the years when getting a gallon of milk is a major ordeal because of getting the kids dressed, into the car and buckled into the appropriate seats.

• To the years when watching an older child's sporting event means simultaneously watching for two small kids involved in the action on the sidelines.

• To the years when a walk to the park is no walk in the park.

• To the years when the minutes until naptime, and that blessed break, simply crawl.

I remember reading once, "how come the minutes go by so slowly and the years go by so quickly?" I can remember as clear as if it were yesterday being at Wheeler Park with my oldest child, helping her climb and swing, eyeing my watch and wondering when could I take her home and put her to bed? She returns to Illinois State today for summer school, after being home a scant 48 hours. Naptime ended a long time ago.

Eight years ago I wrote a column about mothers with a capital "M," those golden years when mom can do no wrong. Not coincidentally, those years coincide with the physically demanding ones.

I wrote then: At a soccer game a few weeks ago, I watched a mother struggle to watch her first-grader on the field while simultaneously keeping control of her other two children, ages 5 and 18 months. "It gets easier," I told her. "When?" she asked with a sigh.

I talked to that mom, now the mother of four, this week, and read her the above.

"Oh, those days," she laughed. And has it gotten easier, as I'd promised her?

"Definitely, absolutely, positively a resounding yes," she said, "even though there's one more of them now."

Her children -- now in grades kindergarten through ninth -- know the boundaries of their lives and the rules of the house, in terms of physical freedom to move about their worlds.

"This is huge," the mother said. "I can be off my game a little bit and they'll still be safe."

She can zip out for a quick errand, able to leave these older children home alone for short periods of time. She doesn't have to load all the kids in the car first. (It's been so long since I did this that I forgot how limiting, and exhausting, that is. Mothers currently in this stage may find this hard to believe.)

Being able to leave the kids at home for a few minutes makes the motherhood gig "incredibly, incredibly easier," said this mom. Moreover, having that physical break gives her a mental one as well and "gives me strength to keep going," she said.

"I didn't quite realize when we'd turned that corner," the mom said. "I just know that we have. It's so gradual. You get your freedoms back a little at a time, and one day you look up and say, 'Wow. These four kids aren't running me ragged anymore.' "

Of course, easier comes with a price. There's a reason for the saying, "Little kids, little problems; big kids, big problems." The sleepless nights ahead won't be because of a fever, but perhaps because of heartache, school woes or a missed curfew. That intake of breath won't be because of watching him fall off his two-wheeler, but because of cutting that left-hand turn way too close for comfort.

But for you moms of young kids, those are tomorrow's concerns. For today, if you can, take a break. If you go to the park, let your kids' dads do the grunt work. Instead, for just this day, sit on the bench, relax and smile.

And happy Mothers Day.