Parenting is as much about the journey as it is about the memories you make along the way. And just in time for Mother’s Day, nearly twenty local mamas tell all, sharing their favorite moments, insights, lessons and laughter.

Baby Genius

Like most mothers, from the day my son was born, I knew he was special.

So, on a Tuesday afternoon, when he was 18 months old, I wasn’t shocked when I saw him reading Curious George out loud from across the room. I immediately ran to get the video camera.

“He’s a genius!” I exclaimed.

It wasn’t until I got close up that I realized he was reading the book upside-down.   

—Lauren Maslin, Founder and Owner of Encore Maternity

Let The Great World Stop

Recently, at the end of a lousy day during what had been my most trying month in my almost-decade as a parent, my daughter asked me, “Mommy, how do you stop the whole world?”

“Nobody can stop the whole world,” I told her. “It keeps spinning no matter what.” Then I turned off the light and shut the door before Maggie could formulate her follow-up.

But her question stayed with me as I slumped onto the couch. I picked up the remote, and stopped. What if I could press a pause button? What if I could live suspended in that moment before returning to the challenges of my life? And if I could do that for myself, could I not show my children how to do the same?

I have found renewed energy for tackling my own motherhood mountain by stopping. By breathing. And by taking all the stuff out of my backpack that was too heavy for the next part of the climb.

Volunteer breakfasts and auctions and making thirty phone calls by tomorrow? No. Sorry, I’m not available.

“Mommy, can you read just one more story? Mommy, can you answer just one more question? Mommy, can you stop the whole world?”

Yes. Yes, I can.

—Amy Wilson, Author of When Did I Get Like This? and Director of Listen To Your Mother NYC (listentoyourmothershow.com/nyc)

Taking The High Road

Just yesterday my eldest son, who’s ten and a half, came home with a check minus on an assignment. I had helped him with that homework, so WE got a check minus!

I went to Vassar, I have a Masters in French and I have a law degree…and I often can’t understand my son’s homework.

The assignment was a map of Europe and he had to fill in three countries. He received a check minus because the instructions said to fill in the countries with a color and we only labeled them.

So I was up in arms…and I called the school—which is really out of character for me because I usually don’t get involved. But I never had the chance to speak with the teacher.

That day my son came home and said that his teacher knew that I had called the school. I told him that I would call her the very next day.

My ten-and-a-half-year-old looked at me and said: “Mom, don’t call her. Be the bigger person.”

—Aviva Drescher of Bravo’s The Real Housewives of New York City. She is on the Advisory Board of Cancer Schmancer/Trash Cancer and Spokesperson for One Step Ahead Foundation.

To read the full article at New York Family click here.