babies, babies

To my darling, baby-producing nieces: Well done, ladies!

Studies show that women who are mothers believe their lives have greater meaning... It’s difficult to measure the value of unselfishly giving of yourself to a child who depends on you. In the words of lawyer and mother Jennifer C. Braceras, "Mothers' reap extraordinary rewards that are impossible to quantify” (p. 2) And as researcher Ellen Galinsky (1987) points out:

Taking care of a small, dependent, growing person is transforming, because it exposes our vulnerabilities as well as our nobility. We lose our sense of self, only to find it and have it change again and again…We figure out how we want to interpret the wider worlds, and we learn to interact with all those who affect our children…In the end, we have learned more about ourselves, about the cycles of life, and humanity itself. (p. 31)

Yup. All of that. And more. Again: Congratulations, lovely nieces.