(To be left open on your desktop or boldly printed and left on top of the remote.)
Dear Dads,
Please don’t phone it in on Mother’s Day. I know you think that it’s just one more holiday invented by the “card companies” to reap untold profits, but really, if you don’t buy a card, you are cleverly subverting their plot and can STILL make the mother of your offspring feel appreciated. Make a card. How hard is that?
Furthermore, you know how you feel like you have to give up stuff for your kid(s)? Well I’ll tell you, when you become a mom, one day you wake up and realize that you are doing hundreds of jobs. You are teacher, chef, doctor, nurse, tutor, maid, manager, secretary, accountant, umbrella carrier, and more to these little ones. Moms give up millions of little things regularly because their kid(s) need them to do something, give them something.
So how about you give her one of those little things back? Time to herself, a night to get dressed up and go somewhere without having to worry about childcare, a little splurge present if you can swing it, flowers you know she loves but would never buy for herself, a little precious spa time? And even if these things don’t seem like her, if you know her, you know there’s certainly something she’s been missing. Figure out what it is and provide it. Ask her BFF if necessary. Just don’t flake out and go “I didn’t know what to get you.” I hear way too many sad tales of woe where moms go unappreciated day in and and day out and hope that just MAYBE on Mother’s Day they’ll get a little something special. They get their hopes up and are crushed when nothing appears. It’s inexcusable. Get something. Do something.
And for the love of god, let her sleep in.
That is all.
MKS
PS: If you need some examples of what NOT to do, here’s a nice article from the Globe and Mail: “What Not to Get Mom”
