05/13/14 Mother's Day

I had a friend once tell me that I was a woman with a man's brain.  It was a compliment, I think.  She was trying to say that I have a way of not over thinking things.  A way of just letting life happen without feeling overwhelmed by it.  And that can be true.  I have my days when it feels like I'm failing and I can't see beyond the sink full of dishes and the piles of laundry.  In fact I probably have those feelings every day.  When my son yells at me and tells me that I am "the meanest  mom ever" and for a moment I wonder if that's a true statement.  When my daughters don't "get" why we won't let them have or go to sleepovers and I hope I'm not scarring them for life by denying them this "rite of passage."  So I guess most days and most of the time I am guilty of thinking like a woman/mom.  I am blessed however to be able to let things go quickly and move on.  I think it's a little bit of survival mode, I can't imagine letting all those "little" things clutter up my mind and drag me down emotionally.  I think I would drown in it all if I didn't.

On Mother's Day I kept hearing people talk about how much they hate mothers day.  WHAT?  Hate Mother's Day?! My man brain must be in full function on this one.  How can you, as a mother, hate Mother's Day?  It's whole purpose for being is to celebrate and revere us, as mothers.  It's all about giving gratitude for the hours on end of seeming thankless service.  I realize I am spoiled.  MD in our home is really MW (mother's weekend).  It is my one day "off" a year.  Breakfast in bed.  No dishes to wash.  No diapers to change.  I even guilt my kids into treating each other in a semi-civil manner.  I love it.  I love that for one day nobody is telling me how to do my job better but instead, thanking me for what I do and telling me to take a break.  What more could an over-worked girl ask for?

I'm told that the reason for the hatred of this glorious day stems from a woman's inability to stop beating herself up.  That when she hears talks and/or stories about other people's "perfect mothers" she can't help but think that she herself don't measure up.  That when a sweet son, who loves his dear mother for her noble attempts to raise him right, says that "she never raised her voice nor made him feel guilty for his choices" she then has no other choice than to compare herself to said mother, think of all the times she's yelled and/or guilted and in turn feel like a failure as a mother.  If that were the case I guess I wouldn't love mother's day either.

I am pleading with all of you sweet, hardworking, under-appreciated mothers out there...can we not for this one day just quit?  Remember it's our day off.  That not only means our day off from making breakfast and wiping bums but also from degrading ourselves.  Let's take this day that was meant to make us feel good about all we do and just feel good.  Look at the faces of those kids that made us moms and say "yay for me, I did something good!"

Ok I'm now jumping off my soap box and I'm going to think about folding the piles of laundry that having been patiently waiting... (i'm not saying for how long).