Mom Says It Best: ‘Easier Said Than Done, But Oh So True!’

ACROSS AMERICA — Alice Hutchins gave her daughter, Joan Hutchins Friel, a simple yet complex piece of advice on mothering and child rearing:

“A mom’s job is to put herself out of a job.”

What Alice Hutchins, who died 10 years ago, was saying was that it was in her daughter’s power to raise caring, responsible adults capable of making their own sound decisions.

Of course, that’s “so much easier said then done, but oh so true,” Joan Hutchins Friel, a Renton, Washington, Patch reader, said in her Mother’s Day tribute.

Friel is among Patch readers sharing the best advice they ever got from their moms in our extended celebration of Mother’s Day.

Come back to Across America Patch every day through Mother’s Day — Sunday, May 9 — for more of these morsels of wisdom we can relate to and smile about as we think of our own moms.

Better yet, sign up for the morning Across America Patch newsletter to get some of the best stories from across our network of hyperlocal news sites.