Happy 250, Mom

As America celebrates its 250th birthday, I’ve found myself wondering what motherhood was like back in 1776. And it’s not because I have some nostalgic affinity for a simpler time. I enjoy indoor plumbing far too much to even consider the alternative.

I’m just curious how far we’ve come (or regressed) as mothers over these 250 years.

As a history buff, I’m honestly in awe of our Founding Mothers. A colonial mother might have awakened before sunrise, churned butter, milked a cow, gathered eggs, baked bread from scratch, spun wool into clothing, tended a vegetable garden, mended clothing by candlelight, and still found time to establish a new nation.

Contrast this to today’s mom. I’m not afraid to admit that there are days I’ve considered ordering DoorDash because the air fryer just felt like “too much.”

Colonial moms were also incredibly tough. If a bear wandered into the yard, they didn’t immediately post to the neighborhood Facebook group: “Does anyone know whose bear this is?” No, they just handled it.

I, on the other hand, once saw a suspicious looking spider in my garage and considered moving. And if a mouse dare enters the inner sanctum of my home, I’m definitely moving! The mouse can have the house.

Communication among moms and between mothers and their children has also changed.

If a colonial mother wanted to complain about another family, she’d write a strongly worded letter with a quill pen, seal it with wax, hand it to a man on horseback, and three weeks later someone would read it. Today, I can text seven moms my complaint before the school pick-up line moves one car length.

Let’s face it. We live in relative luxury compared to our colonial counterparts.

Back in 1776, a colonial mother might own one dress. Just one example, I have workout clothes in every shade of black and an endless assortment of Lululemon and Vuori shirts despite having done very little actual working out. Colonial moms worried whether or not there would be enough crops to survive the winter. I worry if I’ll have enough room in the freezer for all the pints of Jeni’s ice cream I bought.

At our country’s founding, there were no microwaves, washing machines, or dishwashers. Put me in a time machine and drop me in Colonial Williamsburg on July 4, 1776, it’s a guarantee I’d be starving and in filthy clothes. On the bright side, I probably wouldn’t be dealing with microplastics in my brain or internal damage from eating too many bags of microwave popcorn. I’d be hungry and disgusting, but I might actually be healthier overall. It’s kind of hard to wrap your mind around that one.

Saying all that, I’m not suggesting that us modern moms have it easy. I can only imagine how Abigail Adams would have dealt with having seventeen different passwords to remember just to register John Quincy for basketball. Trust me, I’m pretty sure she’d be just as or more challenged than I am.

And the kids?

Colonial children entertained themselves by rolling hoops, whittling sticks, and chasing chickens around the yard. Today’s children complain that the Wi-Fi is “broken” because it takes an extra six seconds to load YouTube.

Probably the biggest difference between moms then and now is the expectations.

Two hundred fifty years ago, if your children reached adulthood able to read, work hard, and avoid or survive a laundry list of maladies, you were considered an excellent mother.

Today, we’re expected to raise emotionally intelligent, academically successful, athletically gifted, socially confident, globally aware children who limit screen time, eat organic vegetables happily, volunteer regularly, play a couple of instruments, excel at a sport, and gain admission to a Top 20 university. And when they grow up and leave home? Naturally, they so appreciate all our efforts that they call every Sunday without fail….

So, on this Independence Day, America’s 250th birthday, while everyone is celebrating the Founding Fathers, I’d like to raise a glass to the Founding Mothers.

Those remarkable women crossed oceans, survived brutal winters, raised families without electricity, running water, antibiotics, washing machines, grocery stores, Amazon Prime, or coffee that came with a loyalty rewards program.

They helped build a nation from the ground up.

But let’s not sell our own generation short. Motherhood may not have changed that much in 250 years. We’ve just traded open hearths for air fryers, quill pens for group texts, and Redcoats for youth sports. And let’s be honest, if the Founding Mothers had had to deal with today’s elementary school calendar for their tots, we’d probably still be a British colony.

I'm not taking anything away from them. But let’s face it, if Martha Washington had to endure an entire school Spirit Week, she might have just looked at King George and said, “Let’s hear him out.”

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