Ahh, Mothers Day! Flowers, breakfast in bed, sweet hand drawn cards, matching Mother/ Daughter Outfits, cooperative kids posing for pictures
Not if you have teenagers! Heck, it wasnt even my reality with little kids. I would like to say thats how it used to go. Id like to say that we have the most gorgeous photos of my kids and I. But I cant. Years ago, my mom gave me photo album with the most beautiful words inscribed. Something about youre going to be a great mom, blah blah blah. I was supposed to have one gorgeous picture each year with my babies to remember our special bond through the years. Um yeah. I think I have two years. And those two pictures are pretty hideous. One kid had a snotty nose and the other was going through a hair thinning phase. Now my kids are teenagers. Mothers Day means no flowers unless I text them and tell them they have to get some. I shudder at the thought of them making breakfast in bed because they are far too old to be making that big of a mess in the kitchen. It's no longer cute. I got this text the other day from the teenager in charge of heating up dinner
Um, No. And thanks for not burning down the house!
What about handmade cards? This generation hasnt hand written anything since kindergarten. I might get a text or a post or a status update with my name mentioned, but I assure you, no crayon will hit paper in the house of a teenager.
Oh and matching outfits? Every once in a while I get a, "You look okay" WITHOUT an eye roll. Sad part is that Id take it as a compliment most days.
The good news about teens: they finally sleep in.
They will sleep in all day, every day, but thats not the point right now. To all the moms of little kids who wake up at crazy early hours, someday your kids will sleep in.
Im not going to lie, its amazing. But just so you dont get too excited, as soon as they are old enough to finally sleep in, some automatic switch gets thrown in your body, and you can no longer sleep past 7am. You are just "done sleeping."
What the heck! Ive been looking forward to sleeping in for so many years. Now that I can, I'm suddenly a morning person. Like my grandmother? At least mornings are generally pretty quiet. And that is as awesome as it sounds.
Those early pictures with the snotty noses, crazy hair, and postpartum mom body are beautiful memories.What I've learned through years of failing to keep up with the Mothers Day album is that my expectations are rarely the reality. Those early pictures with the snotty noses, crazy hair, and postpartum mom body are beautiful memories. We werent that put together, we werent that cute, we werent always at our best. But we survived those years as best we could. We made memories, we grew, we learned, we were bored and we were tired. But we are family. And I know for certain I will look back on the Mothers Days when they were teenagers and find an appreciation for this time in our life! They are moody, irritable, sometimes rude, but mostly growing up into beautiful people who will someday happily sit next to me for a picture in slightly color coordinated outfits! Not this year. I will continue to see the beautiful potential. I will embrace the day to day messiness of teenage life! So on behalf of your teenagers, let me say, "Happy Mothers Day, Mom. You are doing an amazing job." Pour yourself another cup of coffee and go wake those teens. Youve got Mothers Day to celebrate!
ParentCo.
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