By Shirin Yadegar
This Mother’s Day, I want to remind all of us: we are not machines.
We were not brought into this world to be Uber drivers, short-order cooks, maids, or tutors. We were brought into this world to create, to laugh, to love, and to live fully. And yet, somewhere between the laundry piles and lunch boxes, we can forget that.
As a mother of four daughters, I’ve learned that our children are always watching. More than listening to what we say, they absorb how we live. They take note of how we treat ourselves, how we treat others, and how we move through the world. And those quiet observations shape them more than any speech ever will.
If they see us constantly exhausted, overcommitted, and measuring our worth by how much we get done—they’ll think that’s what womanhood looks like. If we treat our careers as the most defining part of our identity, they might do the same one day, believing that self-worth is something earned, not inherent.
But that’s not the legacy I want to leave behind.
I want my daughters to know that it’s character that counts.
That joy is not selfish.
That service doesn’t mean self-sacrifice.
And that being a strong woman doesn’t mean being everything to everyone—it means being grounded in what matters.
So I try to show them that life isn’t just about achievement—it’s about alignment. I want them to see me choosing presence over perfection. I want them to catch me singing in the kitchen, helping a neighbor, speaking kindly about myself, and making time for what fills me up—not just what drains me out.
This is what I believe: the greatest gift we can give our children—especially our daughters—is to live lives we hope they’ll emulate. Lives filled with purpose, but also with play. With strength, but also softness. With ambition, but not at the cost of joy.
So to the mothers reading this, please remember: you weren’t meant to run yourself into the ground. You were meant to rise. You were meant to inspire. You were meant to be whole.
Happy Mother’s Day—you’re doing more than you know.
Shirin Yadegar is the mother of 4 daughters and the creator and CEO of http://www.lamommagazine.com