Mother’s Day in the Middle

Tammy Marino of Unbound reflects on the sacred strength of caring for two generations at once. 

As Mother’s Day approaches, we may think of flowers, rest, gratitude and maybe even a quiet cup of coffee that stays warm long enough to savor and finish.

But for many of us, the day begins like countless others: answering questions before our eyes fully open, setting reminders for our children’s project due dates and our mother’s prescription refills, cutting fruit, finding missing socks, coordinating lunch plans, checking in on aging parents.

Even on Mother’s Day, we are still mothers — and daughters — who take care of others.

For women in the middle, often called the sandwich generation, Mother’s Day is a magnifying glass revealing how wide our love stretches. Ahead of us stand the parents who raised us. Behind us stand the children we are raising. And somehow, by grace, we stand in between.

There is something both exhausting and holy about that reality.

The Beauty of Multi-Generational Love

To care for your children and your parents at the same time is a challenge and a gift. You may spend the morning helping your mother or father navigate a doctor’s appointment and the afternoon helping your child study for a math test. You may find yourself torn in multiple directions, but you can’t imagine not being there for the people you care for most.

In Proverbs 31:28 we read, “Her children rise up and call her blessed.”

While we may picture this as our grown children one day expressing gratitude in the future, in the middle years, we experience this blessing from both directions. We rise up and bless our mothers who raised us by caring for them with patience and honor. And we hope that our children will rise up and bless us for how we loved them and their grandparents.

Our children are watching how we care for our parents and learning what multi-generational nurturing looks like. They see how we speak to their grandmother when she may repeat a story for the third time; they watch us show up even when it is inconvenient; they watch us balance responsibility with compassion.

When we share love from the middle, we shape not only our children’s memories, but their future behaviors.

The Quiet Strength of Mothers

Motherhood in the middle years is rarely glamorous, but deeply formative. The strength, endurance and faithfulness of this season is not loud. It is a quiet murmur as we serve as caretakers without expectations of applause.

It is calendar management. It is remembering birthdays and medications. It is smoothing over misunderstandings. Sandwich-generation motherhood is a steady presence keeping everything from unraveling.

Some days, it feels heavy. There may be moments when you wonder if anyone notices how much you are carrying.

Let us not grow tired of doing good, for in due time we shall reap our harvest, if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9)

The “doing good” of motherhood can be repetitive and sometimes overlooked or taken for granted. But it matters. The meals, the rides, the late-night conversations, the early morning prayers, the phone calls to check in — they matter.

These small daily acts of love have an impact though the gratitude may not be consistent, and the harvest may not be immediate. The good is not wasted as God sees us. And holding a family together is holy work ... even, and possibly especially, when it happens on a day meant to celebrate you.

Middle Motherhood in Action

It would be easy for Mother’s Day to remain centered on our own families: our brunches, gifts, and traditions. But what if the very love that we practice in our own homes, and that we share between generations, could stretch even further?

Around the world, there are mothers who wake up not to flowers, but to uncertainty. Mothers who are carrying water instead of opening cards. Mothers who are holding families together with far fewer resources, but unrivaled strength and courage.

Recently, I learned a story about a brave and beautiful mother who is living middle motherhood while experiencing poverty.

Sandra is a 38-year-old mother of three living in Guatemala with her husband and children. With her husband’s income, the family took out a loan to improve their home, but their financial situation changed, and his income was no longer sufficient to cover the family’s expenses.

At the same time, Sandra learned to make and decorate cakes by watching tutorials on her phone. Over time, she began experimenting with what she had learned by baking cakes for her family’s birthdays. Later, relatives started placing cake orders, and eventually, neighbors and friends began requesting cakes as well.

She quickly realized she lacked the necessary tools and refrigerator space to handle all her orders, and she also had to borrow money to buy ingredients. Thankfully, she qualified to receive support from an Unbound entrepreneurship loan.

With the support Sandra received, she was able to purchase a refrigerator and cake molds, and stock up on ingredients. Sandra’s new business was able to stabilize her family financially. Sandra now delivers three to six cakes daily, and up to eight cakes on weekends.

Thanks to Sandra’s ingenuity and hard work, she and her husband have been able to purchase necessities for their family. But Sandra didn’t just focus her savings on her husband and children. She also has been providing her parents, who struggle financially themselves, with a weekly contribution, which is a shining example of a mother caring for her family and her parents at the same time.

Sandra’s life may look different than mine, but our hearts are not so different. We go to sleep and wake up thinking about our children and parents and their needs. We hope for safety, provision, and opportunity for the little ones who call us “Mommy” and the ones who once gave us those gifts. The settings may change, but the calling does not.

Expand the Circle

Motherhood, at its core, is the willingness to pour yourself into your family. When we recognize that shared experience, Mother’s Day becomes larger than personal celebrations. It becomes an invitation.

For those of us blessed with the ability to celebrate, while enjoying gathering, giving gifts and sharing meals, we can consider easing another mother’s worries.

Maybe there’s a mom in the neighborhood who can use some free babysitting assistance. Donating new or gently used clothes and other necessities to local women’s shelters or volunteering at a nearby food pantry are great ways to get the whole family involved in helping other moms. Or you can consider sponsoring a child in another part of the world to help a family on their path out of poverty. Invite your children to be part of the act of generosity to learn firsthand that celebration and compassion can coexist, and that motherhood is more about giving than receiving.

This Mother’s Day, we will still set reminders, cut fruit, make phone calls, and coordinate schedules. We will carry concerns for both our children and our parents. We will be needed. But instead of resenting the weight of it, recognize it as a sacred position. Perhaps the most beautiful way to celebrate Mother’s Day and motherhood is to let our multi-generational love expand until it touches another mother’s life.

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Copyright 2026 Tammy Marino for Unbound
Images: copyright 2026 Unbound, all rights reserved.