Tomorrow is Mother’s Day.  Let me hear a whoop-whoop from the peanut gallery.

Ah, Mother’s Day!   A day of great expectations and high aspirations.  Look it.  Here’s my unbiased advice for surviving the day.  Let’s just all take a b-iiii-gggg breath.  And then, let us exhale in unison.  Now.    Let us release all those fuzzy, pink thoughts about obedient, compliant children and doting, adoring husbands and allow them to go flying out of our heads.    Off to Never-Neverland where they belong.

Because let’s face it: Mother’s Day is every day of the year.  And tomorrow is not really unlike the rest.  However, if you should be so inclined to celebrate, I believe mothers should truly cut themselves some slack- and lower the bar.  Lower the bar, baby!  That way, if your children remember it is Mother’s Day and they make you a card, it will truly be a surprise.  And if your Hubbie gets you a breakfast sandwich from Tim’s, it will come as a complete shock.  And if you get  a dandylion, chapstick, flowers, chocolates, a sweater or a new Corvette: you will truly be blown away from the shock and wonder of it all.  Train yourself to expect little, and when great things happen (i.e. the children get along for the half-hour it takes to eat lunch), you will be pleasantly surprised.  It will come as an utter delight to your weary soul!!

Anyway.  I believe Mother’s Day should come as a complete surprise to us mothers.  We should never, ever know when it is coming.  Mothers always like to know things ahead.  And sadly, that gives us more time to ponder, ruminate, reflect and worry.  Wonder.  Speculate.  Plan and organize.  No mother should EVER have to plan and organize her own day.  So…Mother’s Day should  come on a day when we least expect it…like April Fool’s Day.  Or the middle of January, when we are all depressed about our friends and colleagues heading south.   While we remain behind, vegetating in our freezing cold houses.

Mother’s Day is nice, don’t get me wrong.  I just don’t want it to be the ‘be-all and end-all’ of my year as a mom.  When I say every day is Mother’s Day, what I really mean is this: if your kid gives you an unexpected hug mid-March, save that one as a Mother’s Day memory.  If your Hubby takes you and the kids out for supper in late-June, after arriving home from work to find you asleep on the kitchen floor mid-supper preparations, tuck that memory away for Mother’s Day.  If ANY of your children buy you a Christmas gift with their own money: Mother’s Day.  Cha-ching!

Voila!  Every day is then Mother’s Day! And when you are feeling down and depressed about your miserable existence and lack of attention from the adoring fans we call our children, you can turn your attention to the time, three months ago, when they got it right!  And Mother’s Day can be a carry over from day-to-day, to infinity and beyond!

And if you do not agree, that’s okay too.  I hope you still have another wonderful day as a mother tomorrow anyway.  I, meanwhile, am enjoying a few moments to myself here on Mother’s Day # 365, May 11, 2013..