The Ultimate Mother’s Day Gift

Less than two weeks until Mother’s Day…celebrated this year on May 9, Mother’s Day is the one day that is marked on virtually every calendar as the day to honor Mothers.  Here is a non-traditional, non-Hallmark-Holiday way to honor yourself, as a Mother…

Happy Mother’s Day Off to all you moms out there.

What? Are you telling me your plans include scuttling out the door on Sunday morning–off to some crowded restaurant for brunch, where they herd you in and out so as to maximize their seatings?

Worse yet, do you find yourself out there paying homage to another mother? Your husband’s mother, your stepmother, Great Aunt Hildy, etc.?

You’re a mom, too! 24/7/365 you provide for your family. So on Mother’s Day, you find yourself again, trooping out for the obligatory events, brunches, pop-ins, flowers…and by the time you’re home, Sunday’s shot. You’re tired, and Monday is but baths and bedtimes away.

My mom did this one right. She took charge of her Mother’s Day. When I was a kid, my friends always had stuff to do on Mother’s Day. Not us.

In my mind, most Mother’s Days from my youth blur into one sort of amalgamated Mother’s Day Vignette. My mom, in her robe, in the living room of whatever house we lived in at the time. Next to the fireplace she sat–though in May, there was not typically a fire going–indulging in a lazy morning, with the Sunday Times, a mug of coffee (milk & sweet’n'low), and her cigarettes.

I’m a mother all year long, she’d tell us, I just want to have one day off. Mother’s Day is that day.

As a kid, that sort of bummed me out. The idea of breakfast or brunch out was always appealing, though when you grow up as one of four kids, that doesn’t happen very often. My mom wasn’t all that interested in much more than what she wanted to do on Mother’s Day.

It may have been disappointing when I was younger, but as a mom, I can tell you, my mom was spot on.

SPOT. ON.

And consequently, I, too, claim the day for myself.

I’ve mentioned this to numerous moms recently. All of whom invariably agree with me that Mom had that one right. And each marvel at the beautiful simplicity of the concept–a simplicity that had frankly, never to occurred to any of them.

We’re moms all year long. We should get to do whatever *we* want on Mother’s Day. If it means you want to go out for brunch, by all means DO IT! But if the thought of getting all dolled up to go out with everybody and their mother because you have to–because it’s “Mother’s Day”–leaves you feeling flat, then I implore you:

Beg off.

Seriously. Do it.

Take charge of your Mother’s Day!