May 12, 2007
Kids may actually listen to moms one day a year, on Mother’s Day, but who is counting?
Well, every mom that is who, and for the record, we moms have memories like elephants.
So listen up offspring.
Number one, just because your mother said you do not need to get her a card, flowers, or gift on Mother’s Day, do not believe her for one nanosecond. She still wants something and prefers the small, sentimental, thoughtful gifts to ones not thought out very well.
“You know that already, so I should not have to repeat myself. Am I talking just to hear myself think here? Look at me when I am talking to you!”
Number two, sending your card late is not a very good idea either.
You owe her guys and gals, and I do not mind a bit dumping this guilt on you because I am a Mom. Guilt is allowed and is one of our staple parenting tools, not to mention the fact that it is in our DNA.
After all, who embedded motherly advice into your psyche so deep that you will never escape it no matter how long you live. Your Mom.
It is all there for a reason, too. As our mothers and grandmothers explained to us a generation or two ago, “Trust me, some day you will thank me.” Time-honored advice of all our mothers will never, ever change either:
“Don’t put that in your mouth; you don’t know where it’s been!”
“What if everyone jumped off a cliff? Would you do it, too?”
“Always change your underwear; you never know when you will be in an accident.”
“Close that door! Were you born in a barn?”
“Turn off the lights when you leave. Someday you will have to pay your own electric bill, and then you will see. Mark my words.”
“Be careful, don’t run with that pencil, you will put your eyes out.”
“You did not wash behind your ears. You have enough dirt behind there to grow potatoes.”
“Don’t make that face or it’ll freeze in that position.”
“I am going to wash your mouth out with soap if I ever hear of you talking like that again.”
Motherly advice. You just can’t escape it, but you gotta love it!
Celebrated in the U.S. since 1907, Mother’s Day is a custom honored on the second Sunday in May. It is based on the suggestions of Julia Ward Howe as long ago as 1872 and on the idea of Anna Jarvis in 1907.
Some consider Mother’s Day a creation of greeting card companies.
Some think it is a maudlin event designed to make kids and dads feel guilty.
Some folks say Mother’s Day conjures memories of the arguably sappy and mushy song most of us learned in elementary school, “M is for the million things she gave me.” The song may be overly sentimental granted, but it was one kids sang with great gusto all the same. I’ll bet you can remember the words. “M”, a mother’s day anthem, was written in 1915 by Theodore Moore with words by Howard Johnson (not of hotel chain fame).
Mother’s Day more than these is meant to be a reminder.
It is a living memorial to mothers who have passed on, a moment of honor for those who are still struggling through difficult life circumstances or illness, or merely a happy, joyful time for children to love their mommies back a whole bunch.
As my mother and grandmother said before me, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all!”
