Each year, Mother’s Day reminds us how lucky we are for the mothers in our lives. Their support, strength, and love help us through the tough days and further brighten the best ones. But what does it take to be the World’s Best Mom? I spoke with three Lava Ridge Elementary students and their mothers to find out.
Mari Powell, 11, describes her mom, Kina Powell, as funny, brave, outgoing, kind, and the best at cooking. “She inspires me by being able to try new things a lot,” Mari says. “She likes to just stick her head in and try something new.” Mari tells me her mom loves to smile and chat, “even when she’s talking to a random stranger she met on the road.” Maybe most importantly, Mari says that her mom is someone “[Mari] can talk to when [she’s] sad or feeling big emotions.”
Kina herself very modestly tells me that “those are very high compliments and [she] can only hope to live up to those.” She says, “Mari is magical…free, and creative,” and the adults in Mari’s life often say they “want to be Mari when [they] grow up.” Although Kina feels that the majority of Mari’s words are “high praise,” they agree fully on the latter statement. “I always want Mari to feel like there’s no conversation too hard to have and there’s no emotion too big that you’d ever have to sit alone with it,” Kina says. “I want her to feel validated in how she feels and we can work through the rest of it together.” I believe Kina is right about her daughter being magical, but find it likely that Kina inspires more of that magic than she gives herself credit for.
Landon Bell, 8, tells me his mom, Megan Bell, is pretty awesome, too. Megan is not only Landon’s mom, but also gave birth to two other babies as a surrogate. Landon says his mom is super smart, makes him calm when he’s sad, supports him at his baseball games, and makes him laugh. She’s the best at “wanting to cook” and makes the best cheeseburgers and hot dogs, he adds.
Besides “everything,” Landon says his mom specifically inspires him to be better at “engineering, ‘cause [he] want[s] to be an engineer!” Megan tells me this has been a lifetime dream of Landon’s that she is incredibly supportive of. “He knows we’ll always show up for him,” she says. “Whatever it is he wants to do or whoever he wants to be, there’s not really any limitation… because we want him to be authentic and true to himself.”
On top of her support, Landon loves that his mom gets “cray-cray” with him. “She does not like clutter, but she loves going CRAY-CRAY!” Landon says. “Oh, yeah, of course,” Megan adds, “[we have] dance parties, play air guitar, listen to music really loud in the car.” With Megan’s unconditional encouragement and fun-loving attitude, it’s no surprise that Landon has big dreams for his future, knowing that his mom will be there for him through it all.
Hadley Barrett, 11, has a super supportive mom as well. She says her mom, Allison, is “one of [Hadley’s] best friends, she’s a good hugger, and she’s always there when [Hadley] need[s] help.” One of Hadley’s favorite memories is a trip she recently took with her mom to a dance competition. “It was just us two, and we had a lot of fun.”
Allison tells me she loved the trip as well, saying, “The most rewarding thing as a parent is seeing your kid do what they love, and [Hadley’s] is shining on stage.” Allison says that her “world revolves around her kids,” and that her goal in life is to “foster kind humans.” Having met one of her two wonderful daughters, I can confirm that she’s already doing a phenomenal job.
It seems there are many extraordinary qualities that go into being a great mother. But my main question for the children was simple – who is The World’s Best Mom? The answers were unanimous; “My mom!” “My mom is!” “The best mom in the world is my mom!”
This article appears in the Source April 30, 2026.
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