Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother’s Day Mom. Happy Mother’s Day Sweet Lee. Happy Mother’s Day Dear Carolynne. Happy Mother’s Day Pat. Happy Mother’s Day Ginny and Maureen. Happy Mother’s Day Aunts Marie, Maybelle, Grace and Gloria. Happy Mother’s Day, Cousins Taffy, Suzanne and Elise. Together you produced 31 fabulous children, or 2.4 kids per mom. Well Done!

Happy Mothers Day nieces, cousins-in-law, and all our 'mom' friends. You’re great Americans all. And there’s not a “Desperate Housewife” in the bunch.

Yet media pundits and feminists can't seem to stop mourning the state of modern motherhood. "Madness is their new metaphor. And a mother's brain, as commonly envisioned, is impaired by a supposed full-scale assault on sanity and smarts. So strong is this last stereotype that when a satirical Web site posted a ‘study’ saying that parents lose an average of 20 I.Q. points on the birth of their first child, MSNBC broadcast it as if it were true."

"But what if parenting really isn't a zero-sum, children-take-all game? What if raising children is actually mentally enriching for mothers - and fathers?"

Some leading brain scientists, including Dr. Michael Merzenich at UC, San Francisco, now believe this to be true. "Becoming a parent, they say, can power up the mind with uniquely motivated learning. Having a baby is a revolution for the brain."

{reference: Katherine Ellison, author of The Mommy Brain: How Motherhood Makes Us Smarter}

All I can say is that Carolynne’s birth motivated me to begin college and when John came I finished my PhD. Lee got a BA and MBA while they were little and without the “benefit” of child care.

I definitely think the babies made us smarter, not to mention more motivated.