A Mother Isn’t Just Somebody

[179 words] “Somebody” said a mother is an unskilled laborer. “Somebody” never gave a squirmy infant a bath. “Somebody” said you know how to be a mother by instinct. “Somebody” never took a three-year-old shopping. “Somebody” said that “good” mothers never yell at their kids. “Somebody’s” child never sent a baseball through a neighbor’s picture window. “Somebody” said a mother can find all the answers to her child-rearing questions in books. “Somebody” never had a child stuff beans in her nose. “Somebody” said a mother always adores her children. “Somebody” never tried to comfort a colicky baby at 3 a.m. “Somebody” said a mother can do her job with her eyes closed and one hand tied behind her back. “Somebody” never organized seven giggling Brownies into a cookie-selling brigade. “Somebody” said the hardest part of being a mother is labor and delivery. “Somebody” never watched her “baby” get on the…