It's 12:01 am and Mother's Day is over. I'm celebrating with a mimosa.
Mother's Day this year began on Saturday morning. With a mimosa. My husband was assigned for duty on Sunday so we celebrated a day early. I smiled. If my relationship with Mother's Day was assigned a Facebook status it would be "It's complicated." With a son from my first marriage who lives with us on vacations and in the summer I always have him for Father's Day and so Mother's Day carried little meaning until the girls came along. Now it's Mother's Day, but not complete until my son calls which this weekend was late Sunday afternoon making my day of celebration a 32 hour ordeal.
The girls were adorable though. Soey has grasped familial relationships and greeted me with, "You my mommy. I your daughter," and late in the day Yasmina decided to confide in me when I told her how sweet and cuddly she was being, "we're being nice cause it's Mother's Day and daddy told us to be good. We'll be normal tomorrow." Yippee.
This chapter is now closed and I wait until next year to feel the discomfort of a day dedicated to celebrating the maternal ideal. Most days I struggle with just feeling like a real live grown up so feeling most like a mother isn't present for me when I'm being showered with praise from my children. I feel like their mom when I'm cleaning up poop, finding that Soey has drawn with my makeup again, and explaining to them both that baths are yes necessary. I didn't need to birth either of them to feel like this. I didn't need to grow them in my belly out of my ingredients. So Happy Mothers' Day to everyone who has children, had children, gave children to other families, or has adopted. Happy Mothers' Day to those raising their children's children. What makes a Mother? If you have done any of the seven following things then congratulations you qualify.
1- Gotten dressed in a rush/in the dark to avoid waking a sleeping baby. Realized hours later that you are wearing an item of clothing inside out or two different shoes. Bonus points if there are underwear or pantyhose static-ly attached to the outside of your outfit.
2- You have frantically google'd info on a rash/fever at midnight and then turned to a Facebook group to ask advice. Bonus points if someone recommended breast milk/coconut oil/wafting of essential oils and you were like yeah right on that sounds like it could work.
3- You have lectured a stranger after they commented on your toddler daughter's outfit as inappropriate. They are kids, stop sexualizing their clothes. You have a toddler son and you have lectured a stranger after they commented on the doll he had. No you will not "confuse" him. They are the one who is confused.
4- If you have ever uttered the words "Bend over and stick your butt up so I can wipe it."
5- Your child has eaten food off of a public floor and after saying "Eww" you figure they'll live and move on.
6- You have ever bribed a child with candy to keep them busy in anothe room so you could have some "alone time".
7- You see puke coming at you and instead of running and screaming you figure out a way to catch it in your tshirt so there is less to clean up later.
Happy Mothers' Day!
