When I spoke at HuffPo Live last week, the interviewer asked what our son did for us on Mother’s Day. What he does is only part of our family celebration, however. Here’s what our whole day looked like this year.
The festivities actually started on Friday, when our son brought home a construction-paper bouquet of flowers, each flower redeemable for a household chore like folding laundry or vacuuming. I’m guessing his teacher would have let him make two if he’d wanted to — but given the chore-based nature of the gift, he was probably happy just to go with the usual one. Can’t say I really blame him on that.
My spouse Helen had been away on business in Asia all week, but flew home to Boston after first stopping for a couple of days in the San Francisco Bay area to see her own mom and dad. She arrived home to us on the red-eye Sunday morning. My mom had driven up to visit the day before, so my son and I went out with her in the morning while Helen caught up on some sleep. Then my brother and his wife, who live nearby, came over for a big family brunch of bagels, lox, and my go-to chocolate cake (because last time we’d had everyone over, it was Passover, so now I was overcompensating with the leavened goods). We exchanged cards, we hung out on the deck, our son got bored with the grown-ups’ talk and went off to play video games. The sky was a brilliant blue and the new leaves were that bright green they only have in spring.
It was about as perfect a Mother’s Day as I could have wished, being with family and enjoying a beautiful day. I hope yours were similarly wonderful, in whatever way was most meaningful for you.
