The Metro: Local moms talk about the beauty, meaning of motherhood

Mother’s Day is this Sunday, and as the holiday has been celebrated over the years, the role and meaning of motherhood has evolved. 

The holiday began when its founder, Anna Jarvis, held a small memorial service for her mother on May 10, 1908. While she’s considered the mother of Mother’s Day, it was not made an official holiday until 1914. 

Today on The Metro, we’re joined by three local mothers — Livonia City Councilmember Carrie Budzinski; Sabrina Nelson, a Detroit mother and grandmother; and Diane Sanders, manager of strategic initiatives at WDET — to reflect on what it means to be a mom and the importance of how their parental relationships shape their kids.

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Sanders raised four daughters in Detroit. The youngest is 19 years old and the oldest is 27 years old.

“[Being a mother] is on-the-job training and you won’t get it right all the time, but you keep doing the best you can,” Sanders said.

Budzinski says her perspective on life continues to grow when raising her 5-year-old and 8-year-old sons. 

“They teach you so much more about yourself. My youngest taught me that everyone is born their own person and that was really enlightening,” Budzinski said. “Learning how to love people differently, learning how to respond to people’s needs differently.”

Nelson, also a mother of two, thinks about all of the women in her life who’ve helped raise her on Mother’s Day. 

“The idea of motherhood for me, is birthing children but also helping to raise children from others,” Nelson said. “Like I have several mothers that did not birth me, that never had children, like Carole Harris or Monica Small. Like they never had children, but I am their child.”

Use the above media player to hear the full conversation with Budzinski, Nelson and Sanders.

More headlines from The Metro on May 10, 2024:

• Created Equal host Stephen Henderson recently spoke with Wayne State Professor Katheryn Maguire about how motherhood has changed her as a person. They began the conversation by discussing how the pandemic impacted parents.
• In his new book “Minority Rule,” author Ari Berman says our political structures, particularly the electoral college and the Senate, do not always have the interests of a majority of Americans in mind. Berman joined the show to talk about the issue of “minority rule” in the United States and how to resolve it.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 11 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.