Our Mothers Day was a bit different. difficult child 1 didn't remember (as usual) although I did have a mysterious text message on my phone (I noticed it this morning - Tuesday) wishing me a happy mothers day, but from a number I don't recognise.
easy child rang to wish me a happy mothers day. easy child 2/difficult child 2 & boyfriend sidled into the room partway through the call to give me a pair of fluffy bed socks. difficult child 3 behind was saying, "I need to do something - I know, I'll get your breakfast for you!"
I had to get off the phone fast to prevent the attempted breakfast, since I only have muesli and I need my diet pill at the same time - it's all too complicated. I also had to rush to pick up mother in law & head for church. Breakfast, get dressed, find footwear, get car, get mother in law - all in ten minutes.
After church they had lunch on the verandah overlooking the beach. The day was sunny (very warm, for autumn) and we enjoyed a chat with friends and a relax before heading back home.
mother in law stayed and we watched a movie together. Then I got difficult child 3 to help me get dinner (since he didn't get the chance to get me breakfast). Of course he grumbled all the way through setting up the roast chicken.
All in all, a better Mothers Day than many I've had.
Past nightmares - EVERY YEAR that I've had a kid at the local school, I've had to endure the school using Mothers Day as a fundraiser. Notes come home asking us to donate something to the value of $5. "Please wrap it."
Of course, a lot of people don't donate. Few wrap it.
So the mothers club has a working bee ("any volunteers?") in the school hall, wrapping cheap stuff that someone has rushed out and hastily bought from the $2 shop.
Then another note comes home. "Please send your child in with $5 tomorrow so they can buy something nice for Mothers Day."
Now, I've had past experience with this. I do not like feeling exploited just because the school wants to raise money and Mothers Day is a good excuse. I also do not like having to buy something for $5, wrap it, then send in another $5 for my kid to maybe buy it back. Or to maybe buy something worth far less and in questionable condition. So I send a note back in saying, "I do not want my child to participate."
So after school my kid has a note from his teacher. "You must have forgotten to send in money with your child, we lent him $5 so he could buy something, you can pay us back tomorrow." Along with comments about the child feeling left out, surely I didn't mean he should be singled out as the only kid with a stingy mother, etc.
So once again I have been dragged into the rank commercialism and emotional blackmail of the whole scam.
And on Mothers Day I get to find out what I have spent at least $10 on. That is, assuming my child hasn't lost it/broken it/eaten it.
Past treasures acquired this way -
1) a violent purple bath bomb which I KNOW was being sold in the reject bins at Target, 2 for $1. I had made the mistake of buying a few, only to discover that it takes several hours' scouring to get the purple stains out of the bathtub.
2) a collection of ten lipsticks. On closer inspection, they are mostly duplicates, three different colours and all various shades of either bright red or hot pink, none of which come close to suiting me, all marked "Sample - not for resale" and all previously used.
3) a half-melted $2 chocolate bar.
4) a bathroom plastic pompom 'sponge' made from recycled onion bags.
5) an opened packet of tea bags (I don't drink tea).
And many more, mercifully forgettable.
What really made me angry, especially with difficult child 3, was the way my kid was often knowingly talked into buying utter rubbish by Mothers Club members desperate to shift the less popular trash by selling it to a gullible, vulnerable difficult child who really had no idea what it was all about.
The items I get which I DO value, are the hand-made cards. These were made in class and for me, represent a more genuine spirit of love and caring. Nobody had any vested motive in exploiting my child to get him to cooperate - all they were trying to do was get him to do something nice for someone else, which I valued.
I really don't mind that difficult child 1 forgot, or that difficult child 3, now freed from the tyranny of Mothers Club manipulation, hadn't bought anything. What I value is the genuine response, the kid who remembers without being told, or even the one who steps in and says, "I forgot - now what would you like me to do for you?"
I value the honesty, I guess. Because when they DO say to me, "Happy Mothers Day!" I know they mean it.
And it didn't cost me $10 to buy someone else's second hand trash.
Marg