To all the kids who were forced into taking care of your younger siblings, to everyone who had to do the work of mothering far too young, to people who lost huge parts of your own childhood in order to see that the other kids could keep a bit of theirs –
You should never have been put in that position. You deserved a childhood too. And I am so proud of you for doing the best you could in a bad situation. The kids you looked after are lucky that someone in their life cared enough to try to parent them, and on a day where people are thanking their mothers you deserve recognition too.
Thank you for trying so hard and for loving those kids as best you knew how. What you did was incredibly difficult and important work that you should not have had to do. Thank you for trying to give them the childhood you didn’t get to have.
