Mother’s Day

When I was about 9 I remember being "sent" to the local shop to buy a Christmas card for my mum (by *her*, I think) and when I got back and gave it to her, she tore into me because I had mistakenly bought a birthday card.

This seems such a weird memory and I'm sure I'm getting some details wrong, but there was definitely a trip alone to the shop, buying a card for my mum and then me being made to feel silly for getting the wrong sort.

P.S. I'm Done With Christmas Cards, I dislike Christmas and send about six cards every year. That's the minimum I can get away with.

On friday I went in sainsburys and seeing all the MOTHERS DAY sections selling chocolates, DVDs etc I assumed that today, sunday 24th, must be the big day. I bought my Mum some flowers and egg custards. She likes flowers and egg custards. My family thought it was a hoot that I got the wrong day and my Mum gets to celebrate two Mothers Days this year so I suppose that's sort of a happy ending.   

I'm right with you, Trainspotter.  Do what you can, while you can.  When she is no longer there, you will continue to honour her life in your own way.  What you put in is what you take out.

I will send my Mum a card for Mothering Sunday.

My mother is in her nineties.  She is on her own, all her sisters have predeceased her, (she had four) and she has little contact with her brothers (three of them).  She very rarely goes out of the house and if it were not for visits from my me, my sister and my brother, she would see no one at all from one week to the next.  So a card is little to pay for the joy it gives her, whatever my feelings are in such matters.

I always think that putting something of yourself into such things is far more appreciated.  Making a card or giving flowers grown in my garden, or potted up from bulbs and (hopefully) coming into bloom at the appropriate time.  I have given my Mum hyacinths for the past more than fifty years. 

And that is only going to stop when I no longer have a mother.

I just remembered how *much* I relate to Sheldon Cooper's views on gifts! (Big Bang Theory if you haven't seen it).

Sheldon: Wait! You bought me a present?
Penny: Uh-huh.
Sheldon: Why would you do such a thing?
Penny: I don’t know. ‘Cause it’s Christmas?
Sheldon: Oh, Penny. I know you think you’re being generous, but the foundation of gift-giving is reciprocity. You haven’t given me a gift, you’ve given me an obligation.
Howard: Don’t feel bad, Penny, it’s a classic rookie mistake. My first Hanukkah with Sheldon, he yelled at me for eight nights.
Penny: Now, honey, it’s okay.You don’t have to get me anything in return.
Sheldon: Of course I do. The essence of the custom is that I now have to go out and purchase for you a gift of commensurate value and representing the same perceived level of friendship as that represented by the gift you’ve given me. It’s no wonder suicide rates skyrocket this time of year.
Penny: Okay, you know what? Forget it. I’m not giving you a present.
Sheldon: No, it’s too late. I see it. That elf sticker says to Sheldon. The die has been cast, the moving finger has writ, Hannibal has crossed the Alps.

Hallmark Day. 

Guilted into wasting a ton of cash on overpriced flowers/chocolates and a ludicrously priced bit of card.   I hate all these things too.  We've always encouraged our daughter not to bother - and to show appreciation of people close to her at other times when she's not getting fleeced - but only if she really wants to.

I always remember my mother treating it like a second birthday and my narcissistic sister always trying to out-do everyone to prove her 'love'.  Weird.

Oh YEAH - Mothers, Fathers, Easter, Christmas and Valentines day = buy some cards/stamps and send them off to who you want (or eggs for easter/presents for Christmas).

It is now all about shops wanting our money. I even get told others do not like me celebrating a death anniversary - FFS if you don't agree then don't have a cake/chocolate then.