OK, it's Mother's Day, so here comes the schmaltz.

This song was written in 1994 in the parking lot outside a Mother's Day gig because the set list wasn't long enough. A few lyrics were revised slightly in 1995. Each verse in the song represents at least one real-life mom in the songwriter's family or circle of friends, sometimes more than one.
It wasn't intended as great art, just an easy sing-along tribute to mothers of all sorts.


HERE'S TO MOTHERS (THEY'RE ABOUT LOVE)
Words and Music by R. Jeanene Pratt, © 1994; 1995

She may be little more than just a baby herself,
A teenage mom raising kids with little help,
But she won't love those babies any less for all of that;
She's a mother-- that's all there is to that.

CHORUS: Mothers! There's just something about 'em.
Mothers! Where would we be without 'em?*
Mothers! The poets rightly tout 'em.
Here's to mothers--they're all about love! (x 2)

She may have raised five kids, a husband, and some dogs and cats;
Perhaps she's never worked,--I mean, of course, except for that!
Perhaps at times she wonders what else she might have been,
But she's a mother, and she loves what that means.

(Chorus)

She may have had her own career and raised her family too
And keeps her youthful spirit even now at eighty-two.
Her kids just throw their hands up, 'cause Ma won't act her age!
This great grandmother is still on center stage!

(Chorus)

Perhaps she never bore any children of her own;
She just takes in strays and tends to those who feel they are alone.
She gives them love and guidance, and they all know her name--
They call her Mother; -- she's a mother, just the same.

(Chorus)


*The line JP initially wrote was "Mothers! Don't leave the womb without one!"
But that seemed a bit too silly.