May 02, 2011

Mother's Day Awareness Plan


My Mother's Days growing up:
1. Sunday morning at 2am, wake up with a jolt to remember I never made my mom a card or bought a present. Set my alarm for 6am, then sleep through it. Fail.
2. At 7am, attempt to make breakfast for my mom. By the time everything's on the tray, the toast is already cold and the cereal is soggy. And not only do I then bump the tray on the way upstairs and splatter coffee over everything, but I enter her room to find her already out of bed. Fail.
3. Hastily throw together a card before church, and come home to eat a meal she made. Remember I never bought a present as everyone else hands over theirs. Fail.
4. Figure Mother's Day is pretty much over, so go and work on homework for the rest of the day, sulk when asked to set the table for supper, fight with my brother. Fail.

My Mother's Day post-kids:
1. Make a super special Mother's Day card for my mom, complete with artwork and a poem, getting it into the mail 4-6 days prior to Mother's Day, just in case. Start getting psyched for the coming Sunday.
2. Wake up Sunday morning, feeling like it's my birthday...then realize Rob's not getting out of bed, so get up at 6-something to fetch a kid or two. Scowl a little.
3. Get home from church and hope Rob and the kids have something special planned. Then sit around while Rob mows the lawn and the kids protest their naps. Cry a little.
4. Have a breakdown when Rob presents me with flowers - give the whole "I don't care about presents, I just wanted us to do something special like go on a hike" sob story. And truly sob a little.
5. Call my mom to sniffle about my totally uneventful Mother's Day, only to hear that she, too, has already cried today. As has her good friend, who also called my mom, crying. Stop sniffling long enough to remember the Mother's Days growing up (see "My Mother's Days growing up" steps 1-4), and start crying while apologizing profusely for the first 28 years of my life.
6. Repeat every Mother's Day.

This year, it suddenly dawned on me that if I want something done right (and by right I mean the way it should be according to The Book of Jacoba...which, consequently, is always right), I must bring awareness to this problem...and EARLY. It's Monday - plenty of time to drop a handmade card or present in the mail for your mom and/or plan on something meaningful to show your lovely wife how much you appreciate her hard work with your kids (because she's the best wife ever and hardly gets the respect she deserves for the hard "profession" she's chosen and the thanks she deserves for the mostly thankless job she does that's fairly repetitive and tedious but oh-so-very important and besides she's raised some super cute kids who are fairly well-behaved except when they throw up on their plate at a restaurant). Publishing this blog post and then posting the link on my husband's Facebook page may or may not have anything to do with awareness plan. Just bringing awareness, folks.

2 comments:

Danielle Chappell Hayward said...

So I stumbled upon your blog... and now, twenty minutes later, I am so glad I decided to "just check facebook before heading to bed to make sure nothing important in the world happened without me". You have me cracking up. I, too, shed tears on Mother's Day! What is up with that?! Glad it's not just me. ;)

cobandrob said...

Seriously! I'm sure there were a fair share of "you must be hormonally imbalanced" opinions after reading this, but I got a few "Mother's Day is the worst holiday ever - obviously invented by an insensitive husband not thinking it through" emails from various moms. :) Nope, we are in good company! Ha!