Blog: Stairs of Love - One Son's Perfect Mother's Day Gift (from Della)
"So, you know, Mother's Day is coming up," I said to my husband the other day. He turned and looked at me with a deadpan expression and uttered, "Again?" Yep, every single year. It's not the celebration of motherhood that troubles him. I believe it's the search of the perfect gift he and my now 11 year son can agree on. My son wants to give me video games and baseball mitts. "She likes to play baseball," I hear him whisper when I've gone in the other room. My husband knows I want to feel appreciated with a gift, but not something for the kitchen, or an easier way to clean the house. He knows he has to find the right gift.
To tell you the truth, my best Mother's Day was a few years ago, when my son, then seven or so, went into his room for over an hour on Mother’s Day morning and came out and presented me with a staircase made of legos. I told him I loved it, not knowing the reasoning behind it, and he smiled and told me it was entitled, "Stairs of Love." It was a symbol of our love, going up, up, up. I still have it. So there is the perfect gift. Match that.
We were talking at work, about Mother's Day and being a mom. We have all gotten the hand imprint made of clay from school art class. We all look beyond that and hope for a gift to save us from being in charge of motherhood every single minute. Just a break. I vowed I would be happy with 10 minutes all by myself in my own house. I probably would sit in a chair, and drink a Diet Coke, and wonder what my son and husband were doing, but at least I'd be alone. Julie wished she could go into the bathroom, pee, and for once not do a little cleaning while she was in there.
Jan loves a prepared lunch picnic basket and then a hike to somewhere unknown. Lisa talked about finding a pink Schwinn bicycle with a big basket attached to the handlebars appearing in her home - actually in her bathroom - from her husband who knew it was one of her favorite things. And Donna, after the 6th grandchild, would just like a bottle of wine and a chicken pot pie ready for her.
The answer to the question, “What do you want for mother's day,” is simple. Acknowledge that being a mother is a full time job, even if the kids are grown and out of the house. Know we tend to put ourselves behind all others. And we, as mothers would like someone else to do something for us - even for just one day. Kiss the mothers in your life, tell them their job is the most important one in the world, and give them some time off. It may just be enough, until next year when it comes around again.