Hellobee Boards

@muffinsmuffins: that's how I feel about mothers day and fathers day. DH isn't my father, but I want to show him that I appreciate what a good dad he is, so I try to make the day nice for him and buy him something small.

@crazydoglady: I saw a post on social media that said lower your mother's day expectations way down and I tried to do that. The one thing I really wanted was sleep but my kiddos and DH thought it would be cute to wake me up earlier than usual just to say happy mother's day

On expecting little:

I was expecting basically nothing, since my husband was unexpectedly out of the country all week (his dad got sick), and my kids are only 4 and almost 2. When I write this all down, though, I guess I kind of planned my own ideal Mother's Day. My SO usually doesn't take my request for a quiet day seriously and makes us go out to eat (I HATE going out when restaurants are crowded; why can't he get that?!).

I decided the only thing I wanted was to minimize stress over the weekend, that's it! While the LO napped on Friday, I batch cooked for the weekend, so I wouldn't have to think about meals (I don't often do this but should start). I decided to stay home all weekend. The kids played outside (God bless the makers of the fully fenced yard), we watched a couple of movies, and I snoozed while my older one commanded the remote; she probably bought several new episodes of awful kids shows, but hey I was unconscious, so who cares. I went back and forth between letting them entertain themselves and spending quality time with them (I consciously made all home tasks come second, but I still did some of them).

I drank lots of coffee. And a little wine. We ate the precooked food. We ate carbs. We played and enjoyed the springtime. My daughter painted something for me. It was simple and lovely. I'd like something similar next year.

When your kids are teeny, the responsibility falls on your husband to do something for you. I know it's only a day and is it too much to ask for your husband to do the laundry, clean, make dinner, get a card etc? Yes, I guess it is for some ...

I've always been sad on Mother's Day because I end up reflecting on all the flaws in my own mother-daughter relationship. I could get the world from my husband and kids on this day, but the sadness is still there.

Mother's Day means something different for everyone and it's best to figure out how to make the day work for you.

And I think it will be more hurtful if my kids don't do anything for me when they are older. I've heard from moms of older kids who don't even get a "Happy Mother's Day" anymore.

Right now I'm in a wonderful spot with 2 kids in elementary school so they make beautiful things for me with their teachers. I expect this may stop in middle school so I have another year with my oldest! So thank you to the teachers who do this!