💝 Mother’s Day 2026 falls on Sunday, May 10. A heartfelt tribute to the moms who survived our worst selves — and somehow still love us. For the full guide, see our Mother’s Day 2026 pillar.
Dear Mom,
You knew I was a devil before I knew it myself. You knew it the first time I bit you while breastfeeding. You knew it the time I screamed in the supermarket because you wouldn’t buy me chocolate. You knew it the day I told you, with a straight face at age six, that I never wanted to see you again. You knew — and you still bore me. Carried me. Fed me. Tucked me in.
I was a tornado in your beautifully arranged life. I broke your favorite vase, lied about it, and blamed it on the cat we didn’t have. I refused to eat anything green for a decade. I drew on your wedding album with a permanent marker. I yelled “I HATE YOU” at least eleven times before I was thirteen. And every single time, you absorbed it, kept loving me, and made me dinner.
Thank You for Bearing the Devil Within Us
Thank you for the spankings I deserved and the ones you held back from giving. Thank you for the eye rolls you suppressed. Thank you for not sending me to military school the year I deserved it. Thank you for the conversations that started with “if you don’t change your attitude…” and somehow ended with you packing my favorite sandwich for school anyway.
Thank you for surviving my teenage years — a period during which I’m reasonably sure you considered ending your own life or mine on at least seven occasions. Thank you for not. Thank you for staying. Thank you for being there at the end of every door I slammed in your face.
Thank you for waiting up the night I came home drunk for the first time, and for not lecturing me until the morning. Thank you for crying in private so I wouldn’t see how much I’d hurt you. Thank you for letting me figure things out for myself — even when you knew exactly how it would end — because you knew I wouldn’t listen anyway.
Mom — the part of me that was a devil came out of me. The part of you that absorbed it without losing yourself? That came out of love. Thank you, forever, for that math.
Now I’m older. I have my own kids, my own crises, my own moments of “I HATE YOU” being yelled at me by smaller versions of who I was. And I get it now. I finally get it. I’m sorry it took me this long.
This Mother’s Day 2026 — Sunday, May 10 — I want to say what I’ve been too proud, too distracted, too ungrateful to say all these years: I see what you carried. I see how heavy I was. I see how you made it look easy.
Thank you, Mommy. For bearing the devil within us. For loving us through every version of ourselves we’ve been. For staying. Happy Mother’s Day.
💝 Mother’s Day 2026 — Sunday, May 10
If this hit, send it to your mom. Or read it to her on Sunday.
If You Want to Say Thanks Too
Tell her in your own words this time. For starter language and frames, browse our Mother’s Day quotes, heartfelt poems, and 15 reasons to thank Mom. Or sit with our piece on what Mother’s Day is actually about — it changes how the day feels.
In this day, I really miss my mom,
I can’t wish her
me too
Thank you girl!! We learned from the best!
By Kashika Pathak -, thanks for the article post.Really thank you!