{"id":7331,"date":"2004-05-07T07:38:32","date_gmt":"2004-05-07T07:38:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2004\/05\/what_do_mothers_want.html"},"modified":"2004-05-07T07:38:32","modified_gmt":"2004-05-07T07:38:32","slug":"what_do_mothers_want","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2004\/05\/what_do_mothers_want.html","title":{"rendered":"What Do Mothers Want?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maggie Gallagher knows<\/a><\/p>\n

Mothers are the people who love us for no good reason. And those of us who are mothers know it’s the most exquisite love of all.<\/p>\n

At 43, I have a lot to be grateful for: a husband, gratifying work, two fine boys (21 and 9 years old) who are, without doubt, the best things that ever happened to me. <\/p>\n

I am grateful, and yet lately I find myself ruminating on the children I meant to have but never did. I always wanted four kids. For good and less-good reasons, that never happened. I regret that. I regret the whole worlds that will never come into existence, the children, the grandchildren, all the human possibilities that never were and never will be.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She echoes my thoughts exactly – the greatest thing about parenthood has nothing to do with you as a parent. It’s knowing, as she says, that by a simple “yes” to life, you set into motion….people..who will make their own way in the world, achieve things, experience things, journey to God and set into motion more lives of their own. It inspires awe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maggie Gallagher knows Mothers are the people who love us for no good reason. And those of us who are mothers know it’s the most exquisite love of all. At 43, I have a lot to be grateful for: a husband, gratifying work, two fine boys (21 and 9 years old) who are, without doubt,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Do Mothers Want? - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2004\/05\/what_do_mothers_want.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Do Mothers Want? - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Maggie Gallagher knows Mothers are the people who love us for no good reason. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. 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