Dear Moms...
Sunday the 10th is your day of the year to celebrate your beauty, your strength, your warmth and your way of telling it like it is (even and especially when no one else dares) — fully, totally, and with all the pomp and circumstance you deserve.
It is flowers, brunches, breakfasts in bed prepared by expert and non-expert hands. Handmade cards and ones crafted by talented, creative professionals. Phone calls from distant progeny, surprise visits from absent friends and relatives, proud tears at our children who have now become parents and a melancholy missing of our own now-gone moms whose disappearance from our lives is forever felt.
The second Sunday in May is one for florists, restaurants, hotels, parks, candy stores, greeting card companies, companies selling anything to pamper the body and the senses, spas, hair salons, resorts and beyond to be on high alert, pushing their wares, tempting all those who seek to give back in some way to the woman who raised us — whether since birthing us herself or for stepping up when no one else did.
In 2020, Mother’s Day won’t have the same trappings of times before, however. There aren’t any restaurants to languish in with a leisurely champagne brunch attended by scads of loved ones that lasts for hours. No parks to enjoy bumping into other moms being feted at other outdoor lunches. Flowers and cards? Sure, why not? You can find something pretty and sweet at the local grocery and convenience store during reduced hours. And pampering products can be bought online in hopes of being delivered in time but no spas, no resorts, no hair salons and no mani-pedis from that cool new place in town for a little mother-daughter time before catching up with the guys later on. We suppose, Moms, it could feel like a “less than” kind of year, but nothing could be further from the truth.
Because...
We see you, Moms. Your strength and kindness in keeping your kids calm during a time that is wholly unique for all of us.
We see you, Moms. The way you’ve taken up the reins of homeschooling when you never thought you’d have to, acting as school teacher, principal, coach, guidance counselor, and sometimes absent BFF.
We see you, Moms. Working from home, juggling how to help the kids learn while managing remote online calls and conferences as your little ones — who haven’t had you to themselves in quite this way since they can remember — do everything they can to get your attention and keep it on them (even as you’re going over spreadsheets).
We see you, Moms. Baking bread from scratch — and becoming masters of the dough or just happy it doesn’t burn. Cooking far more than you knew you would or even like, changing how you shop, taking care to deliver something a little different, getting creative, cooking online and even sharing your triumphs to show-off a tiny bit, sure, but mostly to help other moms know they, too, can do it.
We see you, Moms. Coming up with new ways to keep your kids occupied when they can’t go out, can’t just run to the park like before, can’t hang with their friends, can’t go to school, to practice or class or lessons. Thinking of how to make seminal moments in older kids’ lives as special as possible because they won’t have a prom, graduation, first date.
We see you, Moms. Only able to hug your kids through the computer because they live out of town, are across the ocean, stuck at school because they couldn’t get away fast enough, because you or they are deployed. Worried about and missing them as they or you go off to work in essential businesses — sometimes for a few hours, sometimes nonstop.
We see you, Moms. Holding it together when you discover your job, your partner’s job, your kid’s job, your company, your prospects have dwindled and you assuage any fears of your family while overcoming our own.
And we see you, Moms. Always having done the stay-at-home thing with your kids who in the past would say, “My job is my kids” only to be met with a kind of condescending dismissiveness — as if being a full-time mom is all “ladies who lunch” and daytime television — can now say, “See? Not so easy, is it?” (and who would blame you?) but instead choose to support, offer advice, be the shoulder to lean on with those for whom this new day-to-day is throwing them in ways they’d never expected due to circumstances.
You are all miracles. Everyday. Sunday the 10th just happens to be the one when we all stop and say how much we appreciate you in a focused, over the top, well-deserved way that we could never afford to do all the time (although some of us could). And that hasn’t changed because of the era, the situation, the way of the world now. Our gratitude for everything you are, for how much you love us and make us better by pushing us, caring for us enough to let us be upset with you only to discover you were right all along can never be contained in one day. It’s a forever feeling that grows with each moment, each year.
Thank you, Moms. We want to show you how much we care by letting you know we have Sleep Stripzzz to help you get the rest you need at night, comfy, cozy loungewear to make you feel wonderfully pampered and perfectly at ease (and that you can stay in all day, if you want, and not feel bad about it), delightful treats to make both you and your little ones sleep better, and tapes to help you drift off with the most delicious expansion of the mind. These are things you don’t have to wait for anyone to give you because they’re here for you everyday, anytime, while also being something those who adore you can slip under your pillow, into your grocery bag, onto your desk, wherever and whenever to surprise, delight and make you feel forever special as a reminder — it’s not a “Day” that matters…
It’s you.
