Feliz dÃa de las madres/Happy Mother’s Day
It’s a Hallmark conspiracy some say!
It’s always Mother’s Day others chime in! (Yeah…it’s always Mother’s Day to wear the many hats we do, multi-task and ROCK at it!!!)
It’s a day to celebrate all moms in the way in which they wish to be celebrated.
On a more pensive note (with some true lessons tied in so hang with me here! ) - our mom just passed on to the Lord only 6 weeks ago so this is our first Mother’s Day without her. I just had a good cry addressing a new baby card to my first cousin in Virginia for whom Mom had purchased a card just days before passing. (Will I always find it so difficult to say the word ‘die?’) I explained to him that it took me that long to get the card out and actually write a little note of love from our mom to him and his wife and new baby boy.
Here’s the lesson for all of us moms who over achieve sometimes way too much at our own expense, might once in a while play the superwoman role followed quickly by the martyr role or sometimes just never ask for what they really want on a day like tomorrow - Mother’s Day.
I finally (at the tender age of 47 and three children into this game of Life!) have found my personal answer to this day being truly mine. I have tried leaving it up to the husband (bless him for trying) and the teen boys for doing their own shopping (love that gift card to Cracker Barrel where the pounds pour onto my hips the moment I park my car in front of their restaurant!). Each year I say at the end of Mother’s Day (usually to myself and after doing the dishes or finishing up that last load of weekend laundry!), “This was not quite the way I envisioned my day.”
I have planned this year’s Mother’s Day events all myself. I booked the hotel room at a local Spa & Resort (here in Tampa, Florida we have an abundance from which to choose thankfully!). I made spa treatment reservations for both myself and hubbie with gift cards we had been given back in 2005 (true sign of people not taking the time to relax!!!). I made it so that the children all knew exactly what scent of candle I desired, which SPA CD I longed to hear playing at sunset nightly and which new summer PJs were on sale at JCPenney’s this week!
I even planned so that when we return home Sunday (still Mother’s day) they will cook out on the grill as a team, set the table and do the dishes later as I slip out to a ‘chick-flick’ all by myself in the afternoon. I have left nothing to chance. I have learned that if you want something a certain way, and if it means that much to you to not be disappointed by other results, then set yourself up for success.
Don’t we all do this all the time for our own businesses, our own family plans, our children’s classroom activities, our husband’s work-related events and so on? Then why should how we handle Mother’s Day (I don’t care WHO came up with the holiday and idea) any differently? Perhaps we have felt self-indulgent in the past even suggesting what we might want as a gift or where we might like to go eat.
No more baby!!!! This day is our day - in fact, next year I might make it into a long weekend event provided this ‘hotel, spa, movie, cookout’ idea goes smashingly swell!
Happy Educating and Happy Mother’s Day to all my amigas!
Boca BethÂ
