The Mother Lode Dena Hill and Larry Oldham June 10, 2014 She Said He Said SHE SAID Can you guess what the month of May represents? Probably not, so let me give you a hint. This is the month that (most) men go out of their way to make the special women in their lives happy. (I know you are going to say that you strive to make me happy every month, but this month is extra special.) May is the month of mothers. Almost every woman I know and most women that you know are mothers. I’m not asking you to be extra nice to me this month because I’m not your mother. But as a mother, I will ask you to treat any woman you come in contact with this month as if she were your mother. Don’t buy them presents, don’t kiss them, and for goodness sake don’t ask them to fix dinner or iron your shirts. My suggestion is that you go the extra mile to make the women around you feel more appreciated. I know you feel that you are always nice and treat women with respect, but for the month of May I’m suggesting that you try to understand what women go through as mothers and treat them with more dignity than you would otherwise. Being a mother has been such a blessing in my life and watching my children grow from infants to mature adults has been one of life’s best experiences for me. Being a man, you can’t understand the maternal instincts that most women are born with. This month I want you to put yourself in their places and try to understand the emotions and challenges that only mothers have in their lives. Remember this is Mother’s Day and I challenge you to spend this one month thinking about mothers instead of thinking about yourself. If you were a mother I think you would understand. HE SAID To be perfectly clear I understand completely. Why do I have the feeling that you are acting and sounding like my mother? I believe you could ask every woman you know what kind of man I am and they would be in total agreement that I am an advocate of women and especially an advocate of mothers. I can’t remember all the times I have told my male friends how special women are. Women are smarter than men and much more flexible about everything; whereas, we are not. Women handle the children’s problems better than we do; they help with the schoolwork and choose the appropriate clothes for them to wear. They are just basically all around better mothers than we could ever be. I would be the first one to not only congratulate all of the mothers in the world for a job well done, but take my hat off to how smart women are when it comes to training their children and their spouses. I think all my male friends would agree (at least when we are in mixed company). Even when we are separated and the men folk are sitting around talking politics and war and things, we never lose sight of just how important the women are in our lives. I especially applaud the wives and mothers who let their husbands go fishing and hunting. I guess I am a little surprised and even disappointed that you would even have to bring up this proclamation to me. Why do you think I give in to you so easily and let you have your way all the time? I even come to you and have you explain many of life’s perplexing events to me that I don’t understand. As a man, I clearly understand your needs. I understand the need to boss me around and make decisions for me and keep me on the straight and narrow. I understand all of this because that is what mothers always do, so as a mother, that’s all you know. That is why I love you so much because you make a great mother. Happy Mother’s Day to my wife who is like a mother to me.