Last week, I was picking my kiddos up from school and it was pouring the rain. The way their school is set up, I have to walk up to the building to get them and then walk them back to the car, parked across the street. It’s a bit of an ordeal on rainy days, because with our varying heights, we end up each using an umbrella. We got outside of the building together, moved over to the side and started work on getting all three of our umbrellas up so we didn’t get soaked walking to the car.

I barely had my umbrella over my head when one of my daughter’s classmates came over and joined me under it, asking if she could stand with us until her dad arrived. I could tell she was feeling anxious. So, I worked on chatting with her to help keep her at ease. I assured her that some roads were flooded and that may have been what was making him late today when he usually wasn’t ever late. My kids both did well talking with her. We moved to a different spot for her to try and see him. In the end, he came out of the school building where he’d been talking with an administrator and his daughter had walked by and missed seeing him. All was well and she was off with her dad to go home. My kids and I used our umbrellas and started the damp trek to our car.

I have to say, it was a bit surreal for me that she just clung to me. I was a familiar face when she needed one; she wasn’t using me just for my umbrella to shelter her from the rain. She knew my face from being at school for pick-up and volunteering in the classroom a few times. This is their third grade year, so we have a little history, but our families aren’t close.

However, she saw a mom. And I realized that aside from being a mom to my own kids, I am a mom in general. I’ve known this before like when I have automatically reached for a toddler running by me who tripped and was about to fall. Or when I’ve stopped a friend’s little one from getting into something she shouldn’t. The whole mom thing is ingrained so fully into us and into who we. Moms can be trusted. Moms are there to take care of kiddos. 

Nearly nine years into this motherhood process, I didn’t think anything could make me feel more like a mom. I’ve been through so many motherhood adventures. I no longer bat an eye at helping someone else with their bodily functions or excrements. And, yet, this little girl made me feel even more like a mom because I realized that other kids see me that way just like I did with moms of my friends growing up. That leaves me feeling an even bigger responsibility to my children’s generation. I just hope and pray I don’t mess up too much!