Mother's Day Appreciation Post!

So, I do realize that this is actually a couple of days late for Mother's Day. But I'm a slacker. And it's summer. And to be on top of things right now would be so responsible, it would be verging on irresponsible. But it's OK, because we should ALWAYS appreciate our mothers - not just on Mother's Day. So here's a Disney's Mother Appreciation post! Two days after Mother's Day...

I've actually thought about the presence and absence of parents in Disney movies a lot before - way before ever starting this blog. I find it really interesting that the absence of at least one parent is a recurring theme in Disney movies... which helped me grasp something, even as a little kid, pretty easily.

And that's that parents are freakin' important.

MOTHERS are freakin' important.

There's a good 2 dozen Disney movies (just ones that I'm thinking about right now) where at least one of the main characters has a mother that is dead or just plain absent throughout the show.

And poor Snow White and Cinderella - they have step mothers who also happen to be the villain in their story (I guess Rapunzel kind of fits into that category as well).

But I find it even more interesting that many of these stories, when a mother is absent, a new mother figure has to be found. I mean, take the lost boys for instance - they kind of appoint Wendy to be their new mother because that's what they're missing. And Tarzan, Oliver and Company, Fox and the Hound - there's a lot of them that have "adopted" mothers created in the story because of the lack of mother figure.

I think Disney shows the importance of mothers as much in the absence of mothers in a lot of movies as well as in how they try to bring the mother figure back in.

I'll be honest. I would never go up against Sarabi (Lion King), Sarah Hawkins (Treasure Planet), Chicha (Emperor's New Groove), or Kala (Tarzan). Really, you should just never go up against a mother in general. That's just asking for trouble that you won't be able to finish. But these mothers mean business.

They do the hard things. They show no fear. And they show unbelievable love - even to someone that isn't technically their's. 

I'd put my own mother up there in a heart beat - along with countless other mothers that I've had the privilege of getting to meet and know.

They do the hard things. Even when they're tired. Even when they're afraid. 

I learned how to love anyone and everyone through watching my own mother do that exact thing.

I learned to believe through my mother. 

Pretty much - Mothers are the real Disney.