Being a mom is an incredibly unique experience. Yet we learn some universally difficult lessons throughout the process.
It's not that motherhood is a sad or solemn pursuit. However, there are profound moments when you realize the reality of the life you've created and how it has changed who you are and how you're seen.
Motherhood has been ruminated on by the women who have been through it, just as much as outsiders have observed it. There have been some deep thoughts on motherhood that you can't help but agree with. Here are some of the most resonating quotes about motherhood of all time.
"Mothers hold their children's hands for a short while, but their hearts forever."
— Unknown
Watching kids grow quickly can be bittersweet, but relationships take on new and exciting forms as everyone grows and changes.
"For a mother is the only person on earth who can divide her love among 10 children and each child still have all her love."
— Unknown
Being a mom teaches you new depths of love that can take you to high highs and, sometimes, low lows.
"Whether your pregnancy was meticulously planned, medically coaxed, or happened by surprise, one thing is certain — your life will never be the same."
— Catherine Jones
Regardless of the circumstances around your pregnancy, it changes your body, mind, and soul in a way you can never anticipate.
"A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take."
— Cardinal Mermillod
Many people don't realize how much their moms take on until they try to put themselves in their shoes for a bit.
"When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child."
— Sophia Loren
Moms always have their little ones at the forefront of their minds, sometimes almost reflexively.
"My favorite thing about being a mom is just what a better person it makes you on a daily basis."
— Drew Barrymore
Many moms will not hesitate to tell you how their kids saved them and changed them for the better.
"It's not what you do for your children but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings."
— Ann Landers
Moms often find themselves fighting the urge to fix everything. At a certain point, you come to realize you have to have faith that you've given your kids the tools to fix things for themselves.
"We have a secret in our culture, and it's not that birth is painful. It's that women are strong."
— Laura Stavoe Harm
It's the part of the experience that doesn't get enough recognition.
"Children are the anchors that hold a mother to life."
— Sophocles
What a child means to their mother can't be understated.
"Behind every great child is a mom who's pretty sure she’s screwing it all up."
— Unknown
Moms aren't always the most confident, but most of the time we're doing better than we think.
"There is no way to be a perfect mother, but a million ways to be a good one."
— Jill Churchill
None of us feel like we've got it perfect, because none of us do, but we're all doing our best for our families.
"Grown don't mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown. In my heart it don't mean a thing."
— Toni Morrison
Your baby will always be your family, no matter how much time passes.
"Kids don't stay with you if you do it right. It's the one job where, the better you are, the more surely you won't be needed in the long run."
— Barbara Kingsolver
Moms feel mixed emotions seeing their kids grow up and embark on lives of their own, even though it's a sign of a job well done.
"Birth takes a woman's deepest fears about herself and shows her that she is stronger than them."
— Unknown
Being a mom can take our souls to scary places because of how powerful the love for our children can be. It also helps us overcome some of our most intense fears.
"Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world, a mother's love is not."
— James Joyce
A mom's love is one thing you can count on when everything else feels lost.
"You will never have this day with your children again. Tomorrow, they will be a little older than they were today. This day is a gift. Just breathe, notice, study their faces and little feet. Pay attention. Relish the charms of the present. Enjoy today. It will be over before you know it."
— Anonymous
The days come fast, and it's hard to always be present and grateful in the moment. When you can, stop and take it all in. It'll be different in an instant.
"Motherhood is a choice you make everyday, to put someone else's happiness and well-being ahead of your own, to teach the hard lessons, to do the right thing even when you're not sure what the right thing is … and to forgive yourself, over and over again, for doing everything wrong."
— Donna Ball
It's the hardest and most rewarding choice, day after day.
"Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall; a mother's secret hope outlives them all."
— Oliver Wendell Holmes
A mom's hope is a truly powerful thing.
"Being a single mom means sacrifice: time, money, sleep, privacy. And we give them all, willingly. Just to keep them safe and warm; to let them know they are loved. It is the most rewarding sacrifice I have ever made."
— Unknown
There's no understating how much single moms should be celebrated for all they do.
"There will be so many times you feel like you failed. But in the eyes, ears, and mind of your child, you are a super mom."
— Stephanie Precourt
To your kid, you're the world, no matter how good or bad a day it may seem.
"Motherhood is amazing. And then it is really hard. And then it is incredible. And then it is everything in between. So hold onto the good, breathe through the bad, and welcome the wildest and most wonderful ride of your life."
— Unknown
No matter how many kids you grew up taking care of or how long you waited to become a mom, your pre-motherhood self could have never imagined what this change would bring to your life, in good times and in bad.
"Being a working mother and a working single parent instills in you a sense of determination."
— Felicity Jones
Single working moms have a get-it-done attitude that has no time to suffer fools.
"And she, the new mother of a daughter, felt a fierceness come over her that seized at her heart, that made her feel as if her bones were turned to steel, as if she could turn herself into a weapon to keep this daughter of hers from having to be hurt by the world outside the ring of her arms."
— Lauren Groff
There's nothing like that mama bear feeling.
"You're always going to wonder if you're doing things wrong, but that's what it means to be a mom, to care so much about someone else that you just want to be as perfect as possible."
— Naya Rivera
That drive to be your best self is one of the best parts of being a mom.
"Being a mom has made me so tired. And so happy."
— Tina Fey
Motherhood is exhausting and demanding, but it's so incredibly worth it.
"As a mama I'm only ever going to be in one of three places: in front of my kids cheering them on, behind them to have their back, or beside them so they never have to walk alone."
— Unknown
Blanketing kids in love and support is one of the most rewarding parts of parenting, and no one knows it quite like a mom does.
"Being a mother is not about what you gave up to have a child but what you gained from having one."
— Unknown
Sometimes, moms get caught up in what could have been without realizing all they've been able to gain.
"We are born of love; Love is our mother."
— Rumi
A mom's love is one of the greatest powers out there.
"For me, being a mother made me a better professional, because coming home every night to my girls reminded me what I was working for. And being a professional made me a better mother, because by pursuing my dreams, I was modeling for my girls how to pursue their dreams."
— Michelle Obama
So often, moms are looked at to make a choice between parenting and a career, when each is invaluable to the other experience and to creating well-rounded women future generations can look up to.
"People expect you to change when you become a mother, and of course my priorities changed when I had Violet. She's number one in my life and the best thing that ever happened to me, but I still have fun. I am still myself, but that is made out to seem like I am rebelling against motherhood."
— Imelda May
Some moms have found that holding on to the bits of themselves they cherish and not giving it all up to being a wife and mom is perceived as an act of defiance when it should really be the norm.
