Post Category - Family LifeFamily LifeI Don’t Need Gifts On Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day – a whole day to celebrate mothers – perfect! Or not. Don’t get me wrong, it feels great to have a little extra love, to receive those really cute macaroni necklaces and glitter glued cards (because home-made gifts from the kids ARE the best) but all the commercial stuff that goes with it? Hmmm.
Yes I love gifts and I love to be adored and celebrated and thanked for all the mama stuff I do but I want that to happen spontaneously and not just as a reaction to a day that’s marked on a calendar. And yes I LOVE flowers and chocolates and treats but aren’t they always better as a surprise? Give me a bouquet on that day when I’ve had enough of everything as I blub into my coffee and I’ll appreciate it that much more.
Read more: Mother’s Day Gift Ideas From Sprii
You know what I’d really love on Mother’s Day (other than the macaroni necklace and the scribbly card?). Well here are a few ideas for starters…
SLEEP. I want to get at least 6 hours of uninterrupted shuteye (ha! Is this mega wishful thinking with a 3, 5 and 6 year old?!)
A MORNING IN THE SLOW LANE. I want to enjoy a morning with my kids before school instead of running around like a lunatic trying to make everyone’s lunchboxes, shovel cereal into mouths and stress about making it through the school gates before yellow tickets are issued for lateness… (husband – perhaps you could spend a little less time in the shower??)
NOTHINGNESS. I want to sit and have coffee with a magazine and ignore my phone for a whole hour (please?).
NO ROUTINE. I want to not have to do the school run just for a day (don’t get me wrong, I love seeing those 3 little faces at the end of the school day but the negotiations about why we can’t stop for cake in the school shop, the fighting about who is going to walk on which side of me, the hundreds of bags and dripping water bottles I have to carry while coercing tired kids across sand to the car….let’s just say I’d love not to do it for once!).
SUPPORT. I want grandparents to be around so that I don’t feel guilty about leaving the kids for a while to go shopping or have a massage or spend half a day with my husband. (Yes, I know this is the plight of many an expat mama. Where’s the ‘beam me up’ function when you need it? It’s hard sometimes without family living close by. Sigh).
MEGA NOISE CANCELLING EARPHONES. I don’t want to listen to any fighting or whining or ‘not fairs’ for just a few hours. (especially at bath/bedtime, right?!).
A PAUSE BUTTON. I want time (has anyone figured out how to make more of it yet!?).
PLANS. Please can someone other than me (husband?) make some plans and get scribbling on that calendar (and filling up the weekends with fab stuff that I haven’t had to manage!?).
REASSURANCE. I want to be looked after rather than doing all the looking after (do you ever feel like that too? I’m still a little girl at heart…).
A TREAT. And I want a vacation – a surprise – a really awesome one that I just get whisked off to one day (just had to throw that one in there…)
Read more: Mother’s Day: Maria Iqbal’s Ideas for Gifts and Presents
But then again…I have 3 gorgeous, healthy kids and I’m blessed. And really I’ll take a day in the park with them (perhaps without all the organising that goes around it…)and a tonne of hugs and no-phone-just-us time over everything else. Except maybe the holiday…(just kidding).
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY, MAMAS! YOU’RE AMAZING EVERY DAY.
