Mother's Day Do-Over

Isn't it possible to do a day over...especially if it's a day you automatically become a club member of when you have kids? Mother's Day like all major holidays mean a lot to me. Growing up in the Soup Bowl, holidays were a big deal in my family and my mom was and still is one of the best holiday makers in the country. She was great at it all...the cooking, the cleaning, the parties, the shopping, the perfect presents and most of all the happy memories. This would normally be a great thing except for the fact that my bar has always been set high and with high expectation often comes higher let-down.


I also admit I USED to be what I call a "Hallmark snob." A Hallmark snob is someone that unless you see the little gold crown on the back of the card then the card was probably just from a grocery store and thus not good enough for my standards. Allen learned early on that I wanted the gold crown card but these days a card from the Quick E Mart would serve just fine in my book.

As our family has grown and our lives have become busier, messier, less organized and often chaotic, my standard of what makes a great holiday certainly is no longer the dream of what was but what we can make of it now. And for now, that's OK with me.

It's ok with me UNTIL the deadly combination of things said and NOT said and things done and NOT done led to the 2010 Mother's Day meltdown.

I won't go into the rather scary details but there were certain flashes of a crying child underneath a restaurant table, a husband that forgot the words "Happy Mother's Day" and one mom screeching off in a black jeep just to start off.

After speaking to some other fellow mom's, it sounds like I wasn't the only one that wasn't brought breakfast in bed, slept in, went to the see the movie of their choice or left without criticism..event if it was just for one day. I heard that there is some website that women can sign up to cheat on their husbands and that on the day after Mother's Day the site had the largest enrollment of the year! That is CRAZY (the fact this website even exists) AND that obviously there are a lot of other Mother's out there feeling a touch taken for granted and not so special.

I was very pleased that when I got home from work on Monday that Allen and Cole had purchased me red roses and a balloon (which made Cole very happy since that was what he wanted to give me in the first place.) Even though I had to ask Allen to do it I could tell he was genuinely sorry for the lack of celebration on his part.

We BOTH have a lot of work to do to bring back a sense of special in what has become a war against routine and 110% caretaking.

Until then, I have high hopes for next year!