My Mother's Day was the same as any other day.
And that's the way I like it.
We don't celebrate Mother's Day (or Father's Day, for that matter) at our house.
1. I get sick of giving people gifts, and of receiving gifts. I feel like that's the only way people express affection any more--I like you, here's a gift; I'm grateful for you, here's a gift; I want you to go away, here's a gift. Don't get me wrong, I love getting presents as much as anyone else, and on occasion I even get excited about giving presents (especially to Rex), but after Christmas and then Valentine's Day and Greg's birthday and our anniversary coming soon, it's just a lot. Sometimes, which is Mother's Day, I just want someone to say thank you. So every year for the past three years that I've been a legitmate mother, my gift is for Greg to get up with Rex so I can sleep in. And this year was extra nice because Rex woke up at 4:30. I let Greg go back to sleep at 8:30 to be fair.
2. I want to be appreciated and appreciative all year-round. I love my mother. She is an amazing person who I try daily to emulate. I base a large portion of my parenting decisions on my mother--What would Pattie do? My mom had has 100% success-rate (so far) of high-functioning, capable, caring (except for maybe me) children. I hope for the same success and so turn to her methods. She is the perfect mixture of guide and friend--she knows when to listen and when to give advice. But I digress, my point is that I should tell my mom these things all the time and I would like it if my children (once they can form complete sentences) would do the same. It feels so artificial and superficial to set aside a day to do the things that we should do any way. It'd be like having a Shower Day or Scripture Study Day--things we should do every day, but most of us aren't perfect at.
Having said this, I did enjoy the family dinner my dad put together for his mother for Mother's Day. I do love an excuse to not cook and to hang out with my family.
Also, I realize this completely contradicts what I said about Valentine's Day, which is essentially the same holiday as Mother's Day or Father's Day, but I'm still not celebrating Mother's/Father's Day while I will continue to celebrate Valentine's Day. Maybe I'll have to further contemplate my hypocrisy and get back to you.
Your mom is a great example to follow. I do have to agree with the whole mother's day thing. Although I do love it when we get chocolates after church because we are women over the age of 18. ;)
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I agree with your post. It feels silly to have Mother's day to me as well. We also only do gifts for birthdays and Christmas for the same reason that it is just hard to come up with gifts for every stinking holiday. I do like Mother's Day though, because that is one of the only two days in a year I feel perfectly justified in sitting back and letting Erick do everything, and I'll do the same for him on Father's day. Erick will generally take care of the kids and help more. I also like him to get me a card to mark the occasion, but nothing fancy. This year he gave me a card and a nice bouquet with flowers from our yard. I loved it. He also told me to buy a new dress because he's tired of seeing me in black in the springtime, so I guess that's technically a gift, but it was not expected and it's not like he actually went out and bought one. Anyways, nice post.
ReplyDeleteYour mother is awesome, I have to agree. But also, what's wrong with Shower Day? It's one of my favorite days of the year.
ReplyDeleteHahahaha, Brian. Awesome.
ReplyDeleteAnd Heather, that's coo', that's coo'. I personally think it's weird that they give out flowers and junk in Sacrament Meeting, especially in singles wards. You should talk to Thomas; he is extremely opinionated when it comes to gift-giving.