A Mother's Touch

Watching a single baby should be a piece of cake, right?  Even if you do happen to be in a foreign location, such as a hotel.  Besides, the parents assure of how easily their child goes to sleep after he or she takes their night bottle.  Going into a babysitting job like that, you almost feel criminal accepting money.  Until, of course, things dissolve rapidly.  The baby is happy enough until it is time for bed.  Then, after the bottle has been drunk, the stories have been read, and the lights turned out, the baby decides that they want their mother.  And no amount of walking back and forth, rocking, soothingly rubbing their back or cooing softly into their ears will stop the flow of tears.  

So as the last resort, the mother is informed.  As you wait for her arrival, you look around desperate for a way to quiet her child.  Apparently, running water is fascinating.  Turn on the sink faucet, and the baby will calm down.  Once the mother arrived, it was enchanting to see how the child instantly calmed down and grew sleepy again.  A mother's touch is nothing like anything I've ever seen.  Somehow the infant knows who their mother is and that when she's holding them, everything will be alright.  As I watched the mother put her baby to sleep in the dark, I smiled to myself thinking of what a lovely picture of love was enacted before my eyes.  There is so much trust and faith and love and responsibility intertwined in the relationship between mother and child.  And no person can ever replace a truly loving mother.