Let’s face it, moms are the glue that holds the family together for most holidays. Moms coordinate the perfect present from child to dad or among siblings. But when it comes time for someone to help facilitate making Mother’s Day special, well, things often get missed. To say the least, you can have some awkwardly cute or funny Mother’s Days, and every once in a while, the whole day is just shot to hell and you can’t wait for Monday’s normalcy.
We compiled some of our best stories to make you feel better should you experience your worst Mother’s Day ever.
Whoops! Forgotten Mother’s Day plans
No luck: When everything seems to go wrong
Sometimes, no matter what you do, things will go wrong. When this happens, it’s important to focus on the things you can be grateful for, even when it feels like that isn’t a lot.
Turning grief into gratitude
Kimberly King knows just how sad Mother’s Day can be. In 2020, she had just lost her mom and her teenage sons forgot to do anything. She found herself stuck in a negative thought cycle. “I kept telling myself that this was the first Mother’s Day without my mom. I couldn’t call her. I couldn’t see her. I couldn’t hear her voice. She was gone,” she recalled to Mom.com.
But she was able to salvage the day with a good cry and some alone time listening to old voice messages her mom had sent. “I listened to all of her messages and it reminded me of how blessed I was to have such an amazing and loving mom who supported me through so much. She was my rock for everything. Not everyone has a mom like that! I ended up feeling less grief and more gratitude… for the gift of my mom.” Her revived feelings were short-lived — as the next morning was her fiftieth birthday.
This one takes the cake
There are times when our family tries their best to make the day special and everything imaginable still goes wrong. This was the case for Caroline Lee. “All of my kids brought me a beautiful cake,” Lee told Mom.com. Things were looking good until the dog barged in and knocked the cake on the floor before anyone could taste it.
To cheer her up, her kids gave her another beautiful surprise: a full-body spa salon package for that day. But that didn’t go as planned either. “When I reached the salon, I was informed that the booking was incorrectly recorded in their books for tomorrow, and the slots were filled for today. I had to wait for an hour to get this response from the salon,” she said. So not only did she not get her cake, she drove by herself to be told she couldn't get her much anticipated spa day.
We certainly hope that this Mother’s Day is special for all the right reasons. Give your kids gentle reminders of the day in advance and throw down not-so-subtle hints as to what you’d love as a gift. That’s the way to stack the deck in your favor to have a great Mother’s Day in 2021.
