To Be

moth·er

NOUN: A woman who conceives, gives birth to, or raises and nurtures a child.

My entire life I have wanted to be a "mom".  When you're small, you don't see the trials and tribulations of the day-to-day, only the kisses, the soft skin, the tiny arms around your neck.  Being a mom is more than those things, as the definitions states, raising and nurturing is more challenging and rewarding than most other things you will do in life.
Nurturing includes loving, caring, helping them grow, but also letting them experience life on their own.  Allowing them to make mistakes and guiding them back on the right path.  Nurturing can mean not giving them what they want, but rather what they need, and that may cause backlash and fighting.  Our jobs are to make them healthy, happy, successful humans, not the entitled, selfish, needy beings that come into this world. To transform them into independent adults is the goal...and during the molding, you have no idea if you're on the right track.