My First (Real) Mother's Day--sorta

I don't hold much stock with Hallmark holidays. So I don't expect or ask for gifts for Mother's Day. Not my thing. I usually get something from the kids that they made at school or day care, and that's fine with me. Well, I may have been a mother for 7 years, but mark this year down as the first year a kid actually went out and bought me a present. Sorta.

The day started as any normal day. After getting up, eating breakfast, and chillin' with the kids a while, I started to clean the house. For some reason, the clutter was bugging me more than usual, so I did a more thorough job than normal. I ended up cleaning the house for over three hours straight--yes, on Mother's Day. And fighting with my daughter as I tried to get her to help. Mary and Keith have chores they are expected to do every weekend, but for some reason Mary seemed to think that she shouldn't have to do them this weekend. After one of our spats, I said out loud to no one in particular, "Well, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ME!" Why I had to spend Mother's Day explaining to my eldest the reason why she should help out around the house is beyond my comprehension. Especially after she even wrote a paragraph in school about Mother's Day and how she liked to help her mother clean. Whatever.

During a later spat, Mary says to me, "Why do I have to clean on Mother's Day!! It's a holiday!" Yeah, OK, kid. You got that ALL wrong!! Don't make me laugh!

Later that afternoon, John pulls out the gifts. Real gifts. For me. Picked out and bought (well, four dollars worth, anyway) by my daughter--and son. Wow. My first real store-bought Mother's Day gifts! Keith got me (er, John picked out--as John and Mary did this while Keith was at day care Friday) a Chinese painting kit and Mary bought me some high-dollar tea from Borders. And John tells me that he bought me something, too, but "it's not here yet." (Strange, it's Wednesday, and it's still not here!).

So now I'm feeling kinda like a schmuck for going all "my-mother"-like on my daughter while trying to get her to do her chores. But, only a little bit. 'Cause she's supposed to do this stuff--without complaint--EVERY weekend. So far she's been successful about two weeks out of ten.

[But the kicker is the background story. Mary asked John last week if they could go and buy me a Mother's Day gift (hold your "awwwws", now)--and immediately followed it up with, "and then can you buy me something, too?" *sigh* I am obviously screwing up with this parenting thing SOMEWHERE.]

...and on to another prime Mary moment. After I opened my wonderful gifts--for which I am so, so grateful because they were truly perfect for me--John and I took the kids to the Lilac Festival. We got a big park with lots of Lilac bushes--so the city throws a festival right around the time the flowers bloom. Beautiful and fun--well, if it's not raining, that is.

I gave the kids each $5.00 to spend "as THEY chose." We got there a little late, so we kind of walked through the garden part quickly and moved on to the vendors. Corn dogs and loaded fries for a Mother's Day dinner? Perfect! As we're flying by booths, Mary sees a booth where she wants to stop. John and I are in a hurry to get to our corn dogs, so we tell her "maybe later." I didn't catch until later that what she saw (in the 30 seconds it took us to round that corner) and wanted in particular was a dolphin. Well, we get to the kiddie section, and she and Keith decide they want to ride the kiddie rides. 3 rides for $5.00. I asked Mary, "Are you SURE you want to spend your money on these rides? There are other things here at the festival you may want to buy." I asked her TWICE. She was sure. She plopped down her $5.00, got her 3 tickets, and rode her rides. Well, as it was getting late (And Izzy was starting to throw a temper tantrum because she HATES riding in the stroller--but we HAD to put her in one 'cause we didn't want her to have complete walking freedom in that huge crowd--and she wanted to ride in the bounce house, but we thought she shouldn't as we could just see all those big kids bounding right into her and is it worth the tears and frustration?), we packed up and started heading to the car. On our way out, Mary throws a fit to rival her little sister. Because she wanted that dolphin. And no reassurances of "we'll come back later this week and look at it" were keeping the fit at bay. She cried and carried on all the way out to the car. None of our "stop, or you're not getting it at all" statements worked, either. So, now with both of our girls crying all the way out to the car (one guy we walked by took one look and said, "Time to go home?!" Oh yes, indeed), John's and my nerves were pretty rattled.

And it doesn't stop even after we get to the car. And through most of the car ride home. John finally completely loses it and declares, "That's it! You're not getting anything!"

I mean, c'mon. We do not buy this kid something every time we go someplace--in fact, very rarely. She is not spoiled. So why the heck all of a sudden is she acting like a freakin' mini-Paris? We can't even take her to a store to just "look around" without her throwing a fit when we don't buy anything. "Whose kid ARE you??? Where did this come from???" I'm being told it's the age. I certainly hope so. I'm having a hard time dealing with the fact that my previously-sweet daughter can't even buy ME a gift without demanding one of her own....

So that was my Mother's Day. Filled with tears, accusations of unfairness and temper tantrums--but also good food and a couple of very, very nice, thoughtful gifts. That were actually bought for me. From a store. With my kid's own money. One out of three ain't bad, Mary. There's still hope for you!