Welcome to “Things Worth Remembering,” in which writers share a poem or a paragraph that all of us should commit to heart. Today, to mark Mother’s Day, Hadley Freeman reflects on the late, great Nora Ephron, who wrote an essay that perfectly captures how hard, yet hilarious, having kids can be.
When I was asked to write an article for Mother’s Day I thought, Sure. I thought, How hard can that be? I thought, I have three kids under 10, which absolutely makes me a mother. Even if all of my kids have informed me at various points that I’m the worst mother in the world because I wouldn’t let one of them eat a piece of old chewing gum he found on the bus; or I declined the 5-year-old’s request to have her own smartphone; or I forgot to buy an emperor costume for Roman Day at school, which all good mothers know is the most important holiday of the year.
