Call me negative Nancy if you will, but I’ve always found celebrating a Hallmark holiday to be unnecessary, and a little bit useless, and quite a waste of money. I think this comes from growing up being taught that appreciating your family and loved ones shouldn’t be dictated by one day, but rather, should be on a consistent basis. Buying material things is a nice gesture, but sometimes it’s more meaningful through other ways.

So you’d think then that I wouldn’t have celebrated mother’s day last weekend, right? Quite contrary, being the hypocrite that I am, this year, I thought perhaps I should embrace this Hallmark holiday, and make an attempt to be celebrated as a mother. So I made a declaration a few days before that we should do something. My parents live with us, so naturally, this plan also involved my mother.

 

I asked my mother what we should do, considering she’s so used to a simple acknowledgement on mother’s day, she merely shrugged and said “I don’t know, maybe we go eat?” Typical answer, I think it’s safe to say it’s a common thing among the Chinese culture, food always gets priority over a lot of things, this is no different.

 

So my mother and I agree on going out for a nice lunch with everyone. But we decide that Sunday would not be a good day, so we decide to go on Saturday instead.

 

So here I was, for whatever reason, I’ve decided that I want to celebrate, embrace, and be acknowledged as a mother, I started looking forward to a nice lunch on Saturday, and a relaxing day on Sunday.

 

This is what I envisioned my weekend would be like:

 

This is what felt like it went down:

 

 

Saturday, my husband could not join us for lunch due to business, but I had my parents, my aunt, and my cousins with us for lunch, so I thought I would get to enjoy my meal. Typically, I would, because my parents and my aunt would have no problems keeping my 4.5 year old entertained, but for whatever reason, she decides, of all days, that she could only eat her lunch if I fed it to her. Then I’ve got my 9 months old, who does need a little assistance in eating food. She can feed herself pretty good, but there are some dishes that required a little help in feeding. Here I was, left hand feeding my 9 months old, and right hand feeding my 4.5 year old, during their chewing, I’m trying to feed myself.

 

Rest of Saturday afternoon, my parents and I do our best to entertain the girls, my older one more whiny than other days, every 2 mins is either “I’m hungry” or “I’m thirsty”, which I know, she was neither hungry or thirsty…and my 9 months old is antsy as well, because my older one is and she mimics her older sister’s emotions…

 

Saturday night, when the girls went to bed, I think to myself “There’s still tomorrow”…nope, not when you have a 9 month old…she decides 4am was the right time to wake up, instead of her usual 5am, maybe she knew I needed that extra love for mother’s day. My 4.5 year old wakes up at her usual 7am, she give me a hug, wishes me a happy mother’s day, then proceeds to have a meltdown, all because I would not agree to letting her eat her breakfast in front of the TV.

 

Let’s just say the rest of the morning was just as dramatic.

 

For lunch, we had a good bbq meal, nothing crazy. Afterwards, I left the house with my mother to take my husband’s car to its dealership to leave it for service the following day. I took my 9 months old along, I figured the drive there and back would induce a nice hour long sleep for her…well, wouldn’t you know, we had to stop at a Tim’s for a layover because she had her own meltdown, which was very unusual…nevertheless, my mom and I spent two hours at Tim’s just sipping our iced capp and entertaining my daughter…quite honestly, that was considered extremely relaxing!

 

By the time I came home it was 6pm, did a quick bath, and feeding for the 9 months old, and off to bed for her at 7pm. My 4.5 year old, on the other hand…my husband’s attempt in putting her to bed failed miserably, she was really in one of her moods, I had no choice but to take over…finally at 9pm, she was out for the night…

 

As for me, I spent the rest of the night doing laundry…

 

So, Happy Mother’s day to me! Lol!

Sandy Lynch is an entrepreneur, and a mother of 2 head strong girls.