Mother's Day Overkill

I'm not sure what it is with me, but I don't love holidays.

I'm not real specific to any holiday. I sort of don't like them all. A big part of it has to do with gifts.

When it comes to myself and my own kids and The Mr., I am tight, maybe even stingy. I'm not good at buying stuff for any of us. I'm much more apt to say we don't need it, than to buy something and then when I do buy something, it feels like giving in.

I do like to buy gifts for other people or to treat them to something special, but I like to do it on my time and my terms. I don't like feeling like I've been forced or told to do it. I don't like trying to find the right thing that meets some expectation that I can't even begin to guess at.

Which brings me back around to being grumpy about holidays.

I do appreciate Mother's Day and my momma. I do.

But.

It's a lot to live up to. There is so much hype in the days before, and not just in the secular world. Those diamond commercials, the flower shop adds, the mailers for fancy restaurants. There's plenty to go around in the Christian circles too. Only I think that might be worse. There is all this business of being thankful for our kids and blessed by the chance to shape little lives and lead little hearts to Christ. There is the guilt of having the wrong expectations of what our own Mother's day should be like or the jealousy of seeing someone else's Mother's day rundown and thinking, "wow, I got gypped".

Now, don't misunderstand. I am grateful to be a mom, I am grateful for the kids I have, quirks. I do feel blessed to shape their hearts and lead them to the Lord. I am even grateful for them on the days I'd like to send them to sleep away camp for the whole summer break.

I could tell you about my own Mother's day this year or maybe one from years past, but I don't think I could do it without it seeming like I'm a big jerk. I would sound like I'm whining or complaining. I would sound bitter or aggressive. My challenges are not yours.

Instead what I'll do is suggest that not every one's Mother's day is picture perfect or even remotely perfect. There might be mothers out there who would rather have spent the day far from their families enjoying a little peace and quiet. There are some mothers out there, who no matter how well they've reconciled the facts of who their kids are and how they are, would have liked a day with "normal" kids. There are moms out there who would have liked the day to be really about them and not about putting on that great front to the world that the pencil drawing card their child made for them on Sunday morning while they sat next to mom was so special and treasured. Let's remember there are moms out there who do not want to save all those tissue paper pipe cleaner flowers, they'd rather toss them on trash day. There are moms who did feel like they would have gladly traded the world to take the place of some other mom in her pretty, perfect family for a few hours.

Yeah, I know, there are no perfect families. There really aren't. Those people that have 'em are putting on a show for you. They're telling tales.

But, you know what? There are moms out there that would have liked to live that lie for an hour or two.

And on that cheery note I'll leave you until the next post.