How to Not Ruin Your Own Mother’s Day
Disappointment often comes hand-in-hand with unrealistic expectations. When we are expecting something to validate us and fill us with a sense of purpose or worth, we are crushed or angry if it doesn’t deliver. We can set our hopes on certain people, or on certain days – days like Mother’s Day. If you are hoping that, this weekend, you will finally feel valued and appreciated we’d encourage you to take a moment to reflect on this article and reset your expectations. Happy Mother’s Day!
~ Kristal Toews
I’ll never forget the first time we took the whole family out for Mexican food. We had four little men ages 6 and younger, and I was pregnant with number five. (Seriously, what were we thinking?)
The service was unusually slow, so the kids munched on stale raisins from the diaper bag. After an hour one kid had fallen out of his seat and had a bruise to prove it. One had spilled water all over the table; another had choked on a tortilla chip and thrown up on his plate. And the food still hadn’t come. When it finally arrived our order was all wrong. All in all, not an unusual experience for a young family trying to have a meal out.
Except . . . it was Mother’s Day.
And every little inconvenience, every spill, every fuss, and whine weighed extra on my heart. This was Mother’s Day. My day. The day my husband had thoughtfully set aside for me to enjoy being queen for a day. But I didn’t feel like a queen. I felt like a worn-out mommy.
This Mother’s Day, thousands of moms will be disappointed because the day didn’t turn out the way they expected. But there is hope. There’s a way to have a disappointment-proof Mother’s Day. And it starts with us.