Mother’s Day Is The One Day I Don’t Want To Be A Mother
Mother’s Day is just around the corner guys. And all of us get to spend the week dodging questions from our spouses and children about what we’d like to do on the day that’s supposed honor our love and commitment.
Let me just come right out and say it, Mother’s Day is the day that I just don’t want to be a mother. That sounds horribly harsh, but think about it for a second.
What do I want for Mother’s Day? I want to sleep in without feeling guilty that my spouse is in the living room trying to keep our daughter quiet. I want to be free from the responsibility of worrying about dinner or entertaining my rambunctious pre-schooler. I want quiet time. I want to take an hour-long shower without any interruptions. I want to read a book, take a nap and just plain relax.
You want to know the last time that anything of those things happened? Before I had kids. Before I became a mother, I could sleep in without anyone bothering me. I could lay around the house on a weekend without a concern in the world for entertaining others or fixing healthy meals. I could spend three hours getting ready for a date night. And I could read a novel a week.
My life is fundamentally different now that I have a child. And I would say that it’s better. I’m happier. (Not saying that other people need a child to be better or happier, just that I’m lucky enough it turned out this way for me.) So it feels weird that on the one day a year to honor mothers, I want to abandon all those responsibilities and revert back to a time when my schedule and my time weren’t anyone else’s to control.
Shouldn’t I want to make lasting childhood memories for my daughter? Shouldn’t I want a little family bonding time? Well, I try to make that happen during the other 364 days a year. For me, the perfect Mother’s Day gives me a chance for something a little different.
For years, when asked what she wanted for Mother’s Day, my mother-in-law would tell her five children that her sole request was “Quiet.” I only have one little girl, and I completely know where she was coming from.
Kids are wonderfully loud. You never know what’s going to come out of their mouths. I enjoy my daughter’s chatter. But that doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t be nice to have a day of silence. Consider it a holiday to honor our sanity.
Mother’s Day might be the time to celebrate motherhood, but I try to do that every day. We spend our lives taking care of children and loving that enormous responsibility that comes with raising little ones. Every day is Mother’s Day when you really think about it.
Maybe we should call the second Sunday in May a National Day of Rest. Most moms want a break from being superwoman. Honor and celebrate us any time throughout the year. Spend one day a year letting us concentrate on ourselves. That would be the best gift.
(Photo: CraftJuice)