I watch the commercials on TV about all the wonderful gifts that you should give your mom for Mother's Day and it makes me uneasy for lots of reasons.
I remember giving my mom some homemade trinket we made in school as a gift for Mother's Day. My dad usually got her some type of useful appliance. She got her geranium at church later that day. That was it. When I got older, and we weren't able to have children, I hated Mother's Day. I didn't want the stupid flower at church that they insisted on giving to
everyone and I eventually stopped going to church on Mother's Day. It was just too painful.
Finally, I was blessed to become a mother. Now I could go to church and accept my flower because I was a mother. Only, it didn't really feel any different. My gift was my baby. I didn't really want anything else. I loved being a mother and finally having that blessing in my life.
As my kids got older, that's when the guilt set in. I would sit in church and listen to talks about the perfect mother, and I was so far away from that. I would sink in my seat as I listened to a talk from someone who bragged about a mother that never yelled at them or never raised her voice in anger. She loved to do crafts and kept a perfect house. If that is a perfect mother, that certainly wasn't me. Then I would dutifully stand and accept my flower and go home depressed about my short comings.
Being a mother is HARD work. I make mistakes all the time. So many things I wish I could do over again. So many things I wish I could take back. But it's also a very rewarding and fulfilling thing to me. If I'm going to take responsibility for their failures, I should accept congratulations for their successes as well. In spite of it all, my kids are turning out OK so far.
I don't need an expensive pieces of jewelry, a massage, or a spa treatment to thank me. I get my thanks from a hug, a word of appreciation, or a sweet conversation (and from doing something without being asked.) I feel uncomfortable getting gifts for doing something I love to do. So this Mother's Day, I'm hoping for kids that won't fight, and an enjoyable day with my family. What better gift could I possibly get?