I dedicate this to all the Wagner Park mamas

Source: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/

In honor of Mother's Day this weekend I want to share a few of my favorite passages from The Light at the End of the Diaper Pail by Geralyn Broder Murray, who happens to be a mother in my hometown of Sacramento, California and who is the neighbor of a very close family friend. I would highly recommend picking up a copy of this book for all new mothers you know. It provides little quips of new motherhood that are touching, funny and insightful. On a side note, this would be a much better choice celebrating motherhood than Bad Mother by Ayelet Waldman which was reviewed in this weekend's edition of the New York Times Book Review.

Every day I am inspired and amazed by my mama friends whom I met here in Lower Manhattan when Miss L was just weeks old. These mamas can take on anything (remember the crazy woman in Wagner Park last summer?) and nurture their families and friends with tremendous dedication and thoughtfulness. I will be thinking of them this Mother's Day. When I think of a definition of "good mother" they all come to mind.

Many of us mamas can really beat ourselves up for not being a perfect mother, but really, a perfect mother just doesn't exist. Motherhood is dynamic, challenging and undeniably rewarding.

With this in mind here are a few of Geralyn's insights.

#41 "You are in training. No one expects you to be perfect. There will be no one voting at home on your performance. You are not going to get kicked off the island. You're coming back next week. And the next. Every day, you are learning more and more about this little person of yours. Some days will be hard. Other days will be pretty great. One minute you will have mastered feeding the baby and working the remote simultaneously, and the next you will find yourself slumped over the Diaper Champ in defeat. You will make mistakes. You will have successes. This is excellent preparation for parenthood."

#109 "Love her. Love her. Love her. There are things you will fail at as a mother. Times when you don't have the right answer. Days when you don't want to read another story, play another game or explain one more thing. There are all sorts of ways you will come up short and will disappoint you both. But if you love her truly, madly, deeply, with all of your heart, and you show it, then the most important part of the job has been done."

Motherhood has given me a profound appreciation for my own mother and the sacrifices she made for me. I loved this one from Gerlayn, and Mama J will enjoy one part in particular.

#67 "Call in the grandmas. They may give you unsolicited advice. They may try to dress the baby for winter in the middle of July. They may do every single thing differently than you, but when push comes to shove, they are going to love that baby fiercely. And babies need that kind of fanship. And so do you. So, make your boundaries and move forward into the next phase of this mother/daughter/mother-in-law/daughter-in-law thing together."

And most importantly,

#150 "You are someone's mother. Someone's world. Someone's everything. Isn't that something?"