Mothers Day Humbug

I don’t remember how we celebrated Mother’s Day when I was a child, but when I finally evolved as somebody’s adult daughter, I made sure that I delivered for mom, every year. That may have been a subconscious effort to do penance for my teen years, but what’s the difference. I had a fun day with mother.

Now that I no longer have my own mother to pamper, I wonder why Mother’s Day is less important. I am a mom after all. Did my own mother ever feel that way after her mom passed?

It is impossible for me to say why I’m not a fan of mothers day without sounding selfish. There is a s psychological component at play for sure. I don’t want to be set up for disappointment. No matter what I say, or who I say it to, the day is always kind of lackluster compared to the expectations I have from watching commercials on the subject. I want to spare myself the blow.

Why, and who, decided that we must impose Mother’s Day. While I do think honoring mothers is a nice thing to do, the he truth is that this phenomenon was created by a person who spent the last 20 years of her life trying to have mothers day abolished. Too bad for us that Hallmark had more influence on the country than she did. Ironic too, that she never had children.

And all of this brings me to the point I wanted to make all along. I don’t like Mother’s Day. I’m happy that I was able to treat my mother to her day out – shopping, lunch, girl things. I miss her. When she passed away, we cleaned out her apartment I kept her sewing machine, her wind up toy of a doll called ‘Matzo Man’ who sings when you wind him up, and I kept her jewelry box that contained nothing more valuable than my memories. If she were alive still, I’d be on my way to see her right now, probably without my own kids since it’s mothers day after all, and call me selfish, but it’s Mother’s Day and my kids are kids, not mothers.

I would like to promote a weekend cruise 2020 for mothers only. No dads, no kids, and no exceptions either. Exceptions get us into trouble.

Let’s go out and celebrate what all those hard lessons have taught us:

We are in charge of our own happiness.

To impose our expectations on dads and kids is just an exercise in futility, and disappointment, and on some level, is simply an injustice for them. I mean, earrings and mugs that say ‘I ❤️ Mom’ are nice, but do I need to say anything more about Mother’s Day knickknacks?

Let’s have fun like we used to. Leave your cell phone on dry land, turn off the internet, eat and drink and play the music loud! A weekend of camaraderie at sea with other mom warriors is this is the gift I want next year. I can just see it. My husband and our daughters drive me to the pier and hand over my luggage. I blow a kiss from the main deck as the ship leaves the harbor and as I wave goodbye I call to them. “See you Sunday! If you have an emergency, dial 9-1-1. Bye now.”

I’m in charge. Why don’t I have an office?

I was driving.  My daughter, who was then about 5 years asked: “Mom, how do you get to be in charge?”

“What do you mean? In charge of what?”   I answered.  

“Like, you’re in charge of all of us.  How do you get to be in charge?”

My friend, and mom of  two boys, called me at that very moment and I deferred to her.  “Mel wants to know how I got to be in charge of everyone.”

 Her response,  “Oh, right, that’s the booby prize. “

It’s true. I am the person who keeps the budget, who finds the missing shoe, who keeps track of who goes where, and when, and so on. It certainly reads like a boss’s job, yet I don’t feel like a boss.  Bosses go out to lunch, they don’t prepare the meal and also clean up after everybody leaves the room. Bosses wear nice clothes. I wear what I slept in.  Bosses get a paid vacation. I don’t even get paid. Bosses have an office door that closes to indicate they would like privacy, and they get it!  Well, that’s fun to imagine.

If I had an office, with a door to close, it would be lovely. There would be a

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Let the Box Fit

Here’s a great way to get more from your gift boxes. Usually, you can get sweater boxes and shirt boxes at Target for a decent price, usually under a dollar each and less if they’re on sale.

But, when you need a smaller box, for gloves, or cute novelty socks just to name a couple popular gift items, you will need a smaller box. I know how to take the top OR the bottom of a large box and make it right sized for smaller gifts.

This not only saves you money and cuts down on waste, it’s also really cool.