Don’t Take the Mother Out of “Mother’s Day”
Some people have a very skewed idea of what Mother’s Day should be.
I don’t get it. I hear about it all the time. “Give mom a break on Mother’s Day, Dad take the kids out for the day” or send Mom out for the day on her own, or worse, with someone else. I agree, she should get a break on mother’s day. A break from preparing and cooking and cleaning and planning and so on and so on….but a break from her kids? Now that just doesn’t make sense to me.
I raised two children myself so I get it, it’s a huge time commitment and a lot of work and it’s really special to have time to yourself, just NOT on Mother’s Day. Our local paper this week stated: Give Mom a break on Mother’s Day and get out of her hair for free swimming at the local pool on Mother’s Day. This kind of thinking has been around forever, what message does that actually send the kids? A great treat for Mom is NOT to be with their kids on Mother’s Day? The message should be that Mom is special and her kids are special and you want to have a special day together.
In our family, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day (because of course all this applies to Father’s Day as well) was always about specifically spending time with Mom or Dad. A special breakfast and spending the day together (whether it be going out to the park or playing a game) and then a nice dinner.
Sure, like most moms out there, I too longed for occasional alone time when the kids were small, and I got it, but never on the actual Mother’s Day. In over 40 years, I have never been away on Mother’s Day, It just would never occur to me. Sometimes Mothers even sabotage themselves by telling their spouse and kids not to fuss and make a big deal, so then it comes as no surprise that many Moms are not celebrated on Mother’s Day by their adult children as they book vacations or time away right before or around Mother’s Day. For 20 years my kids have always been around to celebrate Mother’s Day with me, I hope that never changes!
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