A week of moms by Agata Ketterick

Mom! For years, there was no other word I wanted to hear more. Three kids later, there may not be another word that I hear more often.

When the COVID pandemic hit Maine in March of 2020, my job asked me to work from home and my kids’ school shut down. While trying to juggle all this, I wondered just how often my kids said “mom.” Because, in some moments, it felt like a lot.

So, during the second week of May in 2020, I took note of each time one of my three children said “mom.”

While I learned that I heard “mom” at least 507 times during that week, the most interesting part of the project was visualizing each child’s “mom clock.” My youngest child said mom consistently throughout the day with peaks in the morning and in the evening. My son had peaks during mealtimes, while his twin sister said mom a lot more right before bed, which for her was much later than for the other two kids.

Balancing working from home while the kids’ schools were shut down during the pandemic was not easy. There were beautiful moments and there were extremely challenging times. But one thing is for sure, while I would have never chosen these exact circumstances, I am incredibly grateful for the gift of time. We were forced to slow down, to stay at home, and for me that meant extra, quality time with these crazy, wild, amazing, beautiful human beings, who still say “mom” nearly constantly.