Today is Mothers Day, so let’s turn our attention away from the mother of all election battles, to the real mothers.

I HAVE previously written about the three mothers in my life – my mother, my mother-in-law, and my wife – all of whom are unique and admirable in their own ways.

My mother will turn 90 this month and memories of her 80th birthday, which we celebrated at a restaurant in Penang with family and friends, are still fresh in my mind.

But her 90th will be a low-key affair, simply because she is not in a state, health-wise, to have a grand celebration befitting her age.

My mother-in-law, meanwhile, just turned 96 and I am quite convinced that she must be one of the oldest Malaysians around still drawing a pension.

These grand old ladies continue to impact their families in their own way.

For people like me who came from a generation where families were large, our parents did not have much time to attend to our individual needs. But they had a tremendous influence on us because they were good role models.

My mother, though illiterate, made it a point to be present at every speech day during my primary school years. She was so proud to see me walk up on stage to receive my prizes and my teachers would also talk to her about my nutritional needs because I was such a scrawny little kid back then.

Many parents today struggle to find time to meet their children’s teachers and probably spend more time ferrying them to tuition centres.

Indeed, young families today face different challenges – ever higher stakes in the rat race, rising household expenses, and a host of other distractions.

Amidst these demands, I still believe that carving out time to nurture character in the home is probably the most difficult, yet rewarding task for young parents.

Working mothers who struggle to juggle multiple roles at work and at home must remember that not a moment they invest in their children is wasted. This is where fathers must also play their part when both parents are equally busy.

It is often said that values are caught, not taught. Mothers show by example how lives should be lived meaningfully.

“No man is poor who has a godly mother,” Abraham Lincoln said. If mothers everywhere were godly ones, there will be no poverty in the world.

Indeed, such is the power in the hands of a mother. She has the ability to bring up men and women of virtue and integrity. She could potentially determine the course of the future of nations.

Young mothers today are pressured to give the best of everything to their children. But if we strip away the inessentials, we will see at the core that the one thing of enduring value that she can pass on to her children is the ability to see all human beings as equal and to love others as themselves.

Oh yes, and no one does it more admirably than the mother my two sons are blessed with.

On this special day, it strikes me that a day can only be special if we have invested time and effort into the nurturing of relationships, and the building up of character. Happy Mothers Day.

> Soo Ewe Jin (ewejin@thestar.com.my) hopes the bouquet of orchids will brighten up his mother’s day and remind her of the time in their garden back in Kelana Jaya where she tended to them with gentle, loving care.

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