Today was Mother’s Day. A nice holiday in and of itself but we mothers do not take full advantage of it. It’s the one day of the year we can ask our families to do anything for us, and they have to do it. It’s the holiday law.
I should have written this post last week to give you time to make a list of all the things you would like your family to do for you. Forget flowers and breakfast in bed, I just want someone else to be me for the day. If you can get your family to do that, then they will appreciate you all year and not just on Mother’s Day.
Imagine for a minute handing your family a list of things you would like for Mother’s Day. It might look something like this:
Make the bed, make breakfast, do the breakfast dishes, figure out what’s for dinner and lay it out. Get your toddler dressed. Dust and vacuum the house, do five loads of laundry. Give the dog a bath and make sure she takes her heart worm medicine. Fix lunch, clean up from lunch. Dress your toddler again. Put all the laundry away. Go to the grocery store and get stuff for school lunches. Come home and put groceries away. Make sure everyone has done their homework and all backpacks are packed for the morning. Weed the flower bed. Fix a snack for at least one child. Clean up the milk they spilled. Chase your toddler around the house trying to make him wear his pants. Make dinner. Someone needs cupcakes for school tomorrow. Make cupcakes while dinner is cooking. Feed family, clean the kitchen. Get the kids in the tub. Find clean pajamas for everyone .Clean the bathroom after the kids are done, carrying all the clothes downstairs to do another load. Brush the kids hair, remind everyone to brush their teeth. Clean up the sink after the kids brush their teeth. Read three bedtime stories. Tuck everyone in and turn off the lights. Get multiple drinks of water. Keep putting the toddler back to bed while picking up the toys strewn all over the house.
It’s amazing how many little things make up your day. From the moment we wake up until we go to bed at night we are keeping house and caring for our families. They may not always seem like they appreciate it but if you gave them one day a year to be you, they would quickly learn how much you do.
Then you could sit on the couch with a glass of tea and a good book and try to ignore how they are folding the towels and that the baby’s clothes don’t match. Happy Mother’s Day.