IF for Mothers

IF you can survive growing up with brothers and boys and still have an ounce of self respect;

IF you can listen to countless taunts and jeers about your boyfriends and not give up dating altogether;

IF you can, with a smile, say yes to a proposal for marriage from a man who has neither money nor job;

IF you can live with a man without killing him;

IF you can be morning-sick for months at a time and still cook dinner for your husband;

IF you can face the laundry monster without crying;

IF you can climb a mountain of dirty dishes without turning in your resignation;

IF you can watch children undo everything you have ever done, every day of their lives and love them anyway;

IF you can see the “Parade Passing By” and not sob uncontrollably;

IF you can watch other people's ships coming in day after day while yours seems lost at sea, and still change one more dirty diaper;

IF you can meet with disaster, spills, screams and telephone calls all at the same time without cursing the day you were born;

IF you can endure endless lectures on 'how to raise your children' by people who don't have any and not go to jail for assault and battery;

IF you can keep faith with your faith when life seems more like an inferno than a heaven;

IF you can wrestle with the infinite challenges of daily chores, diapers, dishes, crayons, messes, toys, fits, naps, questions, screams, fights, meals and headaches, then face with a smile the words, “This place is a mess! What have you been doing all day?”;

IF you can watch your figure go from OK to blimp to blob and not break all the mirrors in your house;

IF you can wake up every day and just keep waking up and going on each day without any apparent reason for going on;

THEN you will have done the impossible. Then you will be a Mother.