Reflections on Mother's Day

On the day after Mother's Day, I thought it might be nice to reflect on my Mother's Day as well as the one I observed for so many people.  

So let me start by saying that Mother's Day is always a bit hard for me as I lost my mother about 3 years ago.   I didn't have that kind of mother that the Hallmark cards were made for.  My sister and I like to say that my mom had her own "special brand of love".   That's a nice way of saying that she tried the best that she could and loved us in the only way that she knew how.  It's just unfortunate that her way was not the Hallmark way.    We spent Mother's Days as kids making sure we bought the perfect cards, the perfect gifts and that we behaved perfectly.   I think you get the picture.   Now in hindsight and in memory, I like to reflect on my mom with significant gratitude.   Sometimes we learn good parenting skills by good roll modeling and sometimes we do from omission, or maybe the opposite of good.   In any case, I am the mother that I am because of the mother that I had and for that, I am infinitely grateful.   Also, whatever your relationship is with your mother, she did give you life, so for that, be grateful.    It was beautiful to see the outpouring of love for mothers of all generations in social media all weekend - the pictures, memories and messages were awe inspiring.   Mothers deserve this as we all work so hard so that was beautiful to see.   

My day was quite beautiful.  My children were with their father so I was able to go to a Zumba class in the am and then have coffee with a girlfriend to celebrate our motherhood.   I then picked up my kids and we had a lovely brunch and a great visit to the dog park with my fur baby.   They showered me with love and cards and homemade presents and we had a great time.

I delivered them back to their father and made dinner for two of my best girlfriends.  We are all single moms so it was very fun to be able to celebrate together and be grateful to our exes who have to behave like moms so much of the time!    We had an amazing time talking about our paths, our growth and our parenting journeys.  I am so blessed by the people in my life!

I called my eldest to say goodnight and he ended the call by saying "Thanks for being the best mom ever".....and yep, my life is complete.

I hope that you had a wonderful mother's day and/or did something nice for the moms in your life.   Please feel free to tell me about it :)