by BabyCenter Staff posted in Parenting

Happy Mother's Day!
If you're truly lucky, this Sunday will be a day when you're served breakfast in bed (and get crumbs all over the sheets), or handed a bouquet of flowers that's been clutched for too long in sticky small paws, or given a homemade card that will make you cry.
But even if this Mother's Day doesn't measure up to what you see in the movies, having children has already given you, and all mothers, so many other gifts. There are things you don't appreciate properly until having kids scours raw places in your heart; things you forget to appreciate as an adult with bills and worries and responsibilities. But when your kids come along, you learn all over again.
Here are 11 things you appreciate more after having kids.
1. Your own mother
It's only after having a child of your own that you understand how much your own mom loved you. When you hold your baby for the first time and you feel absolutely knocked over by the love you feel, that's the first time you realize that's how she felt, too.
Suddenly you understand so much -- things she did in your life that were inexplicable now make sense. And you feel a crushing guilt for everything horrible you ever did to her. If you call her to apologize regularly for past misdeeds, you're not alone. And if you're lucky enough to have the experience, watching her be a beautiful grandmother to your kids will only make you love her more.

2. All the mothers in the world
When you hol...