The American family has changed significantly since Mother's Day became a national holiday

110 years ago. Families are smaller. More people are choosing not to have children and

more are choosing to be single parents. Still others want to have children and more choosing to be single parents. Still others want to have

children but aren't able to. On this Mother's Day we ask people around the

country for their views on what motherhood means to them.

I did not set out to be a big family mom,

although I would say I was open to it.

And then one thing led to another

and we decided to engage in this adventure of having a big family.

Mother's Day is a very traditional holiday and we have a very non-traditional family.

I decided to have a child solo, I was getting old.

And I realized that this thing inside me that wanted to be a parent was not going to go away.

I decided I didn't want to be a mother pretty early on. I wasn't the type of person who

wanted to play with a baby doll or to play mother. I just didn't have that in me.

I am a single dad to a two-year-old boy named Theo and I've been

raising him alone since he was four months old when his mother passed away.

At the end of 2023 we decided to stop IVF treatment

and walk away without a child because it was taking

a huge emotional toll and was financially impossible

for us to afford any longer.

So initially Mother's Day has been a little bit of a challenge for me.

I enjoy spending it with my mother and I honor it as a holiday for my mom and have never really had the chance to honor it for myself.

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