By Rozany Guzman

Mother’s Day can be seen as one of the nation’s most widely celebrated holidays. It’s a day full of love, kisses, handmade gifts, and spa days. However, mothers deserve so much more than what money can buy. With all the time they dedicate to their children and families, it would seem nothing could ever be enough.

Nine months spent carrying a child: morning sickness, swollen feet, and back pains. Then there are hours, an entire day in some cases, spent on a hospital bed clenching away contractions. They go home and wake up at the ungodly hours of the morning to feed a crying baby and then cradle it back to sleep. There are years spent waking a child up for school, packing school lunches, walking to the bus stop. Then, coming home from work to cook and help with homework.

A mother’s work is never done.

And even after their adult children move out, they  wake up to late night calls for advice. They’re always available, willing to help even when we’re supposed to be off on our own. Then there’s the free daycare, when they take in their grandchildren whenever the parents can’t. They come visit and put together a nostalgic home cooked meal. Our moms are always there, even when we think we don’t need them.

That is why a mere 24 hours cannot possibly be enough to honor a hard-working woman who has dedicated her life to her children.

A study conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan, examining only the traditional male-female paradigm of the home, found that women with more than three kids had an average of 28 hours of housework per week. Married men with more than three kids had about 10 hours of housework.

This study refers to a household setting where the mom handles domestic chores such as, washing the dishes, cooking, cleaning, and doing the laundry. Let’s not forget that most women, mothers included, work 4-8 hours a day outside of the home. This data average excludes the countless others who take on even heavier loads to care for their families.

With all of that responsibility left in a mother’s arms, there should be no doubt as to why Mother’s Day is worth $8 billion more than Father’s Day in sales (according to some research from the Huffington Post).

Mothers never stop feeling pain for their children. They worry when we’re not in their sight; they cry with us when we’re hurting; they lose sleep thinking about and taking care of us; they wreck their brains trying to figure out ways to help in matters that there’s nothing they can do. A mother’s journey to complete her task of nurturing is one unequaled.

She’s there when we first open our eyes. She’s there when we first trip. She’s there to play with us. She’s there for us, and that mother-child bond is almost innate.

So, there is no amount of time that will allow for a full expression of the gratitude we owe our mothers. We should take our time with them; we should make sure they know we love them; we should help them in their troubling moments. Moms are always there for us, the least we could do is return the favor.