It was a bright and early morning during winter. Mom was busy in the kitchen preparing breakfast, lunch and packing food for children.

Apart from the cutting, cooking and microwave heating sounds, the kitchen was quiet.

Slowly, everyone in the household woke up and were getting ready.

It was a long day for everyone at home. Lot of milestone events were scheduled for the day.

Just the simple act of being a support system was turning out to be an enormous task today, as all of us had multiple events and needed to be picked up and dropped off with specific dress code in different places. One had a job interview, a band performance, a project submission, test, midterms, last day to finalize essays, client meeting, bank meeting… the list was long.

No one dared to disturb mom in the kitchen, especially when she multi-tasks her way to ensure we all got to do what we had to do, and be where we needed to be!

She usually skips her breakfast, and starts the car with her cup of coffee! There were days when the driving around was just about 3-4 hours in a day. She would patiently wait in the car, without a trace of frustration and engage in conversation as if there was nothing else more important in life than the conversation we would be having at that moment!

No one expected today to be any different, till someone else entered the kitchen, trying to create space to use the stove and microwave. Was that even possible? It felt like someone was trespassing in the kitchen 🙂

It was none other than my grandmother who was also trying to pack a meal and heat some milk.

Mom was visibly upset and asked her to come and use the kitchen after she left. Grandmother was adamant in using it right then while she was in the kitchen, as she was in a rush too.

We could not hold our smiles and ended up bursting into laughter in the kitchen, irritating mom even further.

She packed all the food and went to the car with her coffee, waiting for others to get into the car.

In came my grandmom, claiming to sit in the car next to mom with two bowls of breakfast in her hands, with spoons to eat and a coffee for herself. She had prepared food for mom and herself for the long day ahead 🙂

When we do not have time to eat at home, mom usually packs us our breakfast and milk to have it in the car during the drive so that we eat something before starting our day. Grandmom was doing the same thing for mom now 🙂 She had packed breakfast and a drink for herself and mom (both of them) showing us how it needs to be done 🙂

Taking care of ourselves and seeing ourselves as a priority while taking care of others is something we need to learn! And who else better to learn it from – than our moms 🙂