"An adventure in highs and lows" was how Utah Young Mother of the Year Barbara Mason described motherhood to the Adult Leader School at a luncheon at Utah State University this week.
Mason delivered the address at the closing session of a three-day series of workshops and seminars. The conference's theme, "Families Building Communities," was a natural topic for the mother of four."I propose that you encourage and build the self-esteem of young mothers," said Mason. "A mother's self-esteem can be up or it can be down. You women can go out and encourage them by saying, `That's normal.' "
The Wellsville resident was enjoying a successful career in the Child Development Department at USU when she met and married her husband, Donald, in 1979. She quit her job a year later upon the birth of her first child and went from "retired to real tired" three years later when her twins were born.
"I no longer knew the answers about child development; I only knew the questions," she said. "I immediately stopped giving lectures."
Mason related anecdotes about her experiences as a mother, including an episode in which pears from a tree in her garden were to be exhibited at a garden show. The day of the show she came home to find tiny teeth marks in the fruit.