Your special day is approaching, moms — Mother’s Day! That means you pretend not to notice that your kids are hard at work with colored paper and glue, making you cards. You also pretend not to see the whispered family conferences about who’ll fix you breakfast and get you flowers. You don’t want to spoil the surprise, after all!
As moms, all the effort your children put in, year after year, probably touches your heart. But you might not be aware of so many unspoken things that go on behind the scenes. Here’s what your kids really want you to know about Mother’s Day.
1. We’re trying to say sorry
On Mother’s Day, all kids everywhere feel like we could have been better children the last 364 days of the year. We remember the times we talked back to you, and made you angry. We regret the tantrums we threw and the hurtful things we said, not realising you just wanted the best for us. Looking at the lines on your face as you smile at our cards, we feel guilty for putting some of the wrinkles there.
The things we want to apologise for may be so small, or happened so long ago, that we don’t know how to bring them up again. Besides, ‘sorry’ is always one of the hardest words to say. But we hope you are reading between the lines of our flowers, cards, and ‘Thank Yous’, to see the words we truly want to express.
2. We want you to tell us what you want
Do you ever wonder why you’ve been getting the same kinds of gifts these past few years? As we prepare for your special day, we, your children, begin to realise we might not know what you really want at all.
As selfless moms, you are always putting our wants first. You make sure we get the pick of the food and the choice of where to go for family outings. As a result, we may not really know what you wish for when it’s your turn to be the centre of our worlds.
Go ahead and tell your kids exactly what you want for Mother’s Day (and if they ask, don’t tell them you don’t want anything!) Mother’s Day is the last day where you should be sacrificing your wishes for our own. Whether you want us to take you shopping or promise to help out more with chores, just say the word.
3. We really want to give you the perfect day
To your adoring kids, you are the best mom in the world, and the best mom deserves only the most perfect day.
Though it may not be obvious, your kids put in tons of effort behind the scenes to honor you with the best celebration possible. We scoured the Internet desperately for gift ideas. We browsed all the Mother’s Day sales in the shops. We made a list of all your favourite foods and experimented with cooking them.
Chances are, we also feel that we failed to create that ideal surprise. It’s not just because we couldn’t get bookings at your favourite restaurant, or because the perfect gift doesn’t exist. Ultimately, it’s because any gesture we do pales in comparison to the immense, continuous love you’ve shown us every single day of our lives. Faced with your dedication, your kids may feel embarrassed getting you something small with our limited resources.
And that’s why…
4. We may want to show you our love in other ways
Sometimes your Mother’s Day celebration seems slapdash or a little half-hearted, or perhaps your kids don’t even mention it at all. If this happens, here’s what your children probably want you to know: it doesn’t mean they love you any less.
Next to Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day has become one of the most over-commercialised holidays of the year. It’s practically impossible to do anything original when ads and promotions bombard us with the same old cliches, year after year.
Sometimes we, your loving children, just want to skip the day’s glitzy extravaganza. To us, it’s far more meaningful to show you our love and respect in small, everyday gestures.
READ: How do kids who lost their mom celebrate Mother’s Day?
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