SIX NATIONS – Do something different this Mother’s Day.
Mother’s Day is a day where people take a few moments to thank their mother’s for all their hard work, love and dedication. The appreciation usually presents itself by way of some sort of gift — a card, chocolate, gift card or an expensive dinner at a fancy restaurant.
I’m sure many of us “children” have fallen into the trap of getting our mother’s something simply for the sake of it being Mother’s Day, but we children also know that it’s near impossible to slip anything by our (eerily) all-knowing mothers.
Mom’s know when a gift comes from the heart and mom’s know when it comes from our last-minute run to the shopping mall to pick up a beautiful (seasonally over-priced) bouquet of flowers.
There’s nothing wrong in getting your mother something from a store, or treating her to a nice meal, but why not take something regular and put a personal, creative spin on it this year? Show her that the years she spent helping you become the person you are didn’t go unnoticed.
Here are some ideas of mine — I’m no pro, I’m just a son, the youngest of three siblings, with a mom who never gets the appreciation she absolutely deserves on Mother’s Day:
Take her out to dinner
I know I just said that dinner falls into the last-minute, forgettable category, but not if you do it this way: Take her out for dinner and ask her things you’ve never asked her before. Ask her how she felt when she first held you. Ask her why she picked the name she gave you. Ask her to share with you a memory she has of you when you were three — mom’s don’t forget these kinds of things — so be prepared for some funny, or emotional stories.
Send her a card
It doesn’t matter if you live two houses away from her, or across the country. These days snail mail is one of the most personal ways you can reach out to someone and show them they were worth the time it took for you to get out a pen and notepad, find a stamp and envelop and then dig up their address. Your mom will appreciate the effort — even go crazy and try to find a cute sticker you can put on the card to make her smile.
Start a card chain
If you have siblings, or if your mother is also a grandmother who has family located across Canada — send a blank card to your sibling and ask them to write a small note to your mother in it and then ask them to send the card to another sibling or grandchild. Continue the process until all the children involved have signed the card. Finally, the last person to sign the card can send it to your mother. This one takes a little bit of time to organize, but I’ve done this one before and it was worth it.
Just be there.
These days everybody has a totally valid reason to be busy. Work, kids, car trouble or meetings — we all get it, we’re swamped. Sometimes a mom doesn’t need more flowers, chocolate or earrings. If you’re the kind of person who is always “too busy”, slow down this year and don’t plan anything for your mom on Mother’s Day. Instead, show up at her house and ask her what she wants to do. Ask her how she would want to spend the day, and then genuinely enjoy being with her. Turn your phone off, don’t bring your computer and just spend time with your mom.
I understand not everybody has a mother to celebrate on Mother’s Day and that not everybody had a woman in their life who earned the title “mom”, but it’s still a good idea to take some time this Sunday, May 8 to reflect on the women you may have had in your life who helped you along the way, and thank them for it.
