Mothers Day - it's the little things

Mothers day is a funny old badger.  admittedly it is lovely to wake up with some level of expectation of a little help (unless your small one accidentally loads the Sky remote in the dishwasher or feeds the cat Ready Brek) but I always think that the heavy TV campaigns and the glossy, not so subtle Magazine adverts rose tint what can be a really tough day.

Though it is nice to think just for a second, that someone does appreciate you washing poo out of the carpet, stemming the nose bleeds at 3am and for simply not loosing your shit after helping do the same maths homework page for the past 3 months. It is even better to know you have a bonifide 100% excuse to be a tad lazy because it is printed on the calender (even if you know that no one else will lift a finger and you will work twice as hard tomorrow!)

It is an each to their own kind of day stemmed from tradition; but now we are a generation of click happy parents and it is so easy to use social media to show what we have been bought, to share videos of proud children delivering homemade cards and to pop up Instagram photos of the snot filled toast that has been dropped on the carpet 4 times before it appears as 'breakfast in bed'.  But I wonder if maybe, maybe we should keep some of this new age 'like and share' just for ourselves.  

We have forgotten that having something just for you makes it even more special than telling a computer screen how lucky you have been.  In our tech happy world we can be so eager to show others, to follow the trend or join the hashtag, we forget to think of the impact this day has on others.  

You never know if someone on your friend list is desperate to be a mummy and is struggling. Someone may never have the chance to become one... and it hurts, someone may have almost been a mummy this year but it never quite came to be.  Maybe someone feels they are not doing they best and suffering PND and the pressure to be perfect is just too much.  Maybe you have a friend struggling to come to terms with a child's diagnosis and this day makes them feel a failure, or it could be the first Mothers Day for someone without their own mother or indeed their child.

Maybe it is time for a little solidarity - that we keep a bit back, ponder if you really need to before listing the days events, showing the menu of the pub you have been taken to, or tagging your family to show their friends how they have truly nailed it this year.

This Mothers day you will find me at home, phone locked in a drawer.  I shall be hoping not for gifts but for small miracles such as going for a wee without the need to be shown a you tube clip of a cat or a drawing he did of a Viking Rocket (I kid you not!)  I shall be hoping that someone realises that the washing machine ON button is not worked via finger print recognition (this also applies for the iron) and that we do not own a Wallace and Gromit type 'bed making' device and that others can make them, after all it is always the little things that make a big difference...

And in that manner of thinking this Mothers day of course be proud, be grateful and feel so very loved, but maybe hold a little back for yourself... not only will the memories be extra special but a little thoughtfulness might make all the difference to someone you care about.