Mother's Day

I am visiting Jan, Mike, Warren and Samantha this week. Yesterday morning I woke up very early to hear a baby talking loudly in her crib and a toddler running down the hall singing JOHN DEERE!!! at the top of his lungs. I opened one eye. 6am. It was Mother's Day. No sleeping in this morning. Emeril would have to arrive before dawn to surprise this mom with his annual Mother's Day Breakfast in Bed.

I always loved the image of a sweet child bringing his mother a tray with a flower in a vase, orange juice and a plate of pancakes for breakfast. Who is that child and where does he live? I'm pretty sure he never lived in any of my friends' homes. And if he did, I'm also pretty sure the tray was just a cover-up for the disaster waiting in the kitchen after Mom gets up. It's a nice idea, but it's about as close to reality as McCauley Culkin taking out the burglers in Home Alone.
We have lots of ways to honor mom's from gifts to taking her out to dinner, but the truth is Mother's Day begins the same as every other day. Mom gets up and feeds a hungry baby, fixes breakfast for a toddler, wipes a runny nose and carries on much the same as any other day.

I had the pleasure of being treated to lunch yesterday by my daughter, in honor of Mother's Day. We celebrated with her mother-in-law, her sister-in-law and her S-I-L's mother. Along with the adults were the 3 little ones. It was a great way to spend the day and there were several other 3 generation tables like ours. A comment Kathy made hit the mark. "I've waited 35 years for this." While raising 2 boys and living on a farm where chores don't take a holiday, Mother's Day was a day like any other. Being treated to lunch by her 2 daughter's-in-law was what she dreamed of when the children were little.

What do moms want? It depends on where they are in life. The busy mother of a young family dreams of time to herself, while the mother of grown children longs for time spent with family. But most of us have fond memories of the little gifts our pre-schoolers and young children brought home from school.

Warren came home from pre-school on Friday with a soft soap bottle vase covered in colored tissue paper and 3 paper flowers cut from the outline of his hand, in the vase. "Happy Mother's Day!" he beamed. Jan beamed right back at him. "My first Mother's Day Present!" she said. Those are the memories I have of Mother's Day. The paper teapot with the teabag and poem attached, the paper flowers, or the picture made in school. They are the times that made me feel special as a mom when my kids were little. The lunch yesterday, made me feel special as a mom now that my kids have grown.

Happy Mother's Day!