Monday, May 10, 2010

Mother's Day


Okay. I’m curious what your views are about gift giving on Mother’s Day.

This is not written out of complaint for my own husband! Randy’s a great gift giver and so I have nothing to complain about! It’s just that I’ve had several conversations with people on this topic and it’s made me question a couple of things.

Here’s the deal. I don’t demand a present on Valentines day. Randy and I may or may not get each other something for Valentines day. The day could pass us by and we don’t really care. For Christmas we rarely get each other a gift. If one of us sees something we know the other one would love then we would probably get it, but it’s not expected. We tend to get each other things randomly throughout the year instead of waiting for the calendar (or Wal-Mart) to dictate when to buy something for one other.

Also, with Randy owning his own business he doesn’t just take off when there’s a national holiday. On Labor Day….he Labors. He’s not a Veteran so on Veteran’s Day he works. If something needs to be done on Christmas Eve then he does it. On the same coin though, there may be a random Tuesday that he wants to take off so he does. (You get the point.)

Anyway, so you see that I’m not demanding a big gift at each holiday. It’s not that big of a deal to me. BUT!!!!! I’m sort of freakish about two days a year! I think that my birthday is as big as any other holiday! Also, I think that Mother’s Day is really important!

I always want my whole Birth-day to be about me. I want to get out of doing regular chores. I want to be treated special. I basically want to get my way all day long and be treated like a special queen. Is that really too much to ask?

Mother’s Day is another day I feel like that. I think it’s strange that I don’t care about other “made up” holidays but I care about this one. The way I figure is that I had FIVE children! Five of them! And that means that I deserve some kind of recognition or something. :) Besides that, mothering is my full time job. I don’t work outside of the home, besides volunteering so it’s like a day to appreciate me what I do for day in and day out.

Here’s where the question comes in…WHO should be the one honoring and gift buying on this day?

Is it your kids that should make the day special? Should the mom be happy with her homemade card and macaroni necklace and hope that no one fights during the day? (If you're a single Mom then this is your present which, I find terribly unfair!) Or should the husband also make the day special and crank out a really special gift?

The argument of course is that the wife is not the husband’s mother so why should he give her a gift.

To me though, it seems like the perfect opportunity for the husband to thank his wife for all she does as the mother of his children. Again, I’ve very grateful to Randy because he’s a giver and he tolerates my craziness about these two dates on the calendar.

However, I know that it causes trouble for other people.

So, what are your opinions about this holiday…or other holidays that are usually associated with “gifts”.

Maybe wives should be more like husbands in the area of gift ideas…Sex. Sex covers all holiday gift giving. Am I right?

1 comment:

Rachel said...

Well, you know that I agree on the birthday issue. We're the same about Valentine's Day -- no presents, usually.

But, I'll want to do almost any holiday for presents!! But, sometimes I have to settle for the homemade card & macaroni necklace. Aaron just doesn't get all excited about those things. We usually go out to eat for lunch, but that's it.

This year, he offered to let me get a manicure & pedicure. I traded those for new clothes. So, I think I have it pretty good.

However, the only disagreement came when he wanted to go do something by himself. I said, "But, it's mother's day. You should take the boys." He said, "I know it's Mother's Day. You should take the boys and spend the day with them as their MOM." I didn't think that was very logical thinking. But, I'll have a free day to myself on Father's Day! ;)