OPINION: Most mothers do the lifting and the loving

FOLKS, making a baby is a fairly simple process.

Greg Bray, columnist for the Gladstone Observer. Photo Brenda Strong/The Observer. Picture: Brenda Strong GLA170212GREG

FOLKS, making a baby is a fairly simple process.

All you need is the right plumbing, an eager accomplice and a few minutes' privacy to download your blended DNAs into a little iYou 2.0.

After that, things get a bit trickier.

Fortunately, women do the heavy lifting (literally) during pregnancy, because if we men were asked to go without booze for nine months Australia's birth rate would plummet faster than a stunned duck.

Historically, being a mother has never been easy.

For eons, they've raised herds of children while fending off attacks by wild beasts (including their randy husbands), diseases and famines, plus the constant threat of conflict from aggressive forces (once again, their randy husbands).

So, if you're here today, it's because someone took the time to nurture, feed, wash, clothe, educate and, hopefully, love you.

For most of us, that was our mums. But, for many of you, my mum included, it was someone else.

My grandmother died when mum was two and I can only imagine how terrible it must have been for grandma to hold her infant daughter while struggling to stay alive.

Nobody wants to die before their children get to know them.

Plus, every Mother's Day, I feel for all the mums who have lost a child, and how heart-wrenching it must be for them to watch overly mushy Mother's Day commercials.

Obviously, I'm a real joy to be around when this mood hits me...

But life isn't all sunshine, roses and chocolates, folks, and nor is motherhood.

And I should know, I watched my mother and then my Long Suffering Wife valiantly raising children. And they had assistance.

Granted, when dad and I tried to pitch in it was a bit like when the kids help you cook: we generally created more work and mess than usual.

So heaven help all the mums with disabilities, the single mothers, the sick, poor and lonely mums. And if that's you, this column is my Mother's Day gift to you.

Like a badly drawn child's card it's not much, but it comes straight from the heart. Happy Mum's Day!

Greg Bray blogs at gregbraywriter.wordpress.com.

Originally published as OPINION: Most mothers do the lifting and the loving