When Your Mom Is Also Your Best Friend

For all those reading this who aren’t close with your mom, I am sorry. I truly am. If she passed on, if you never really knew her, or if she left your life through some other circumstance, my heart goes out to you. There is no love like a mother’s love.

I, for one, have been blessed beyond belief with a mother who would do anything for me. I am very thankful. A mother is your first and most loyal friend in life. She’ll be there to listen to your boyfriend problems or gossip about your friend group, and if you get enough wine in her, she’ll tell you all about the family feud between Grandma and Aunt So-And-So.

She’s there to give you guidance. Maybe when you were a teenager you didn’t want to hear it because you were the smartest person in the world and didn’t need to hear outdated advice from your mother (who was only trying to help). But she loves you unconditionally. She stuck with you through those times you maybe didn’t even really want her there but needed her there.

A mother is a built-in friend, and if you are lucky like I am, it is a friendship to treasure. My mom is a role model of strength, generosity, and compassion. I personally struggle with mild depression, and although my mom has never experienced this issue herself, she is always there to tell me anything I need to hear. Sometimes it’s not the words she says but the fact that she is saying something and trying her hardest to relieve my hurt. It’s the thought that counts.

The year after I graduated college, I lived with my mom to save money and try to pay off some of that crippling student debt. Her being divorced and me being the youngest child, she had lived alone since I finished high school. I walked into the kitchen one day where she was washing dishes and without thought I went up behind her and gave her a big hug. “Wow, Emily,” she said after I let go, “Thank you. Nobody is around to hug me very much.” And in that moment, I could feel the pinch in my nose and the pressure behind my eyes of tears welling up. I forgot that mothers need love as much as we do.

If you are a mother, a soon-to-be mother, or trying to be one, I praise you. You are doing the hardest job in the world, and you’re doing it wonderfully.

“If I have done anything in life worth attention, I feel sure that I inherited the disposition from my mother.” —Booker T. Washington