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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
For anyone who goes to school, watches television, or reads any news, it’s hard to forget Mother’s Day. Really, it is. But it happens more often than you think and can really put a damper on the day, to say the least.
Not even a card
“When my oldest son was 1 and I was pregnant with twins, I had high hopes for that year's Mother's Day,” Christina Garret told Mom.com. “Maybe I should have expressed that I was looking for something…anything exciting, but my husband (who is amazing, by the way) did not get the memo!” Garret went to church with her family in the morning and then asked what the plan was. There was no plan, no activity, no card. That’s right, Christina got nothing.
The kid saves the day
Jennifer Bradley told us about her worst Mother’s Day, which was when she lived on a military base in Japan while her husband was deployed. She spent the day like any other, making breakfast for her five children, changing diapers, and got everyone dressed. “It was a very lonely day,” she recalled to Mom.com.
But don’t fret, all was not lost because her ten-year-old son had a plan she didn’t know about. “In the middle of the afternoon, my 10-year-old son came walking proudly into the living room with a sparkly pink gift bag. He handed it over with a giant, ‘Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!’” she fondly remembers. In the bag was a candle causing Jennifer to wonder how he pulled this off and where he got the money. “He then told me that he had asked his best friend’s mom to take him to the Base Exchange one day when he was playing at their house. He took along his wallet and she took him so he could choose the perfect gift.” While the day was still hard, this was a good save by the kid that made a lasting memory for Jennifer.
Feeling the pain on Mother's Day
Life happens and it isn’t always kind. Mother’s Day is not immune to having mom get sick or hurt while simply trying to relax and unwind. It isn’t fair, but that doesn’t stop it from happening.
This Mother's Day went down the toilet
Sabrina Beaumont remembers her worst Mother’s Day experience. “It all started with me waking up at 3 a.m. feeling nauseous beyond your wildest dreams," she told Mom.com. "Had it only been a one off, I feel I would have probably been fine, but it kept going and I would wake up every hour just to find myself with my head in the toilet bowl.” The problem was more than just being sick; Sabrina was alone, since her husband was visiting family with the kids and delayed in coming back. For her, a bad case of food poisoning combined with being separated from her family made for the worst Mother’s Day ever.
Adding injury to insult
Being sick isn’t the only way to be ailing on this special day. Katie Clark told us about the time her then 2.5-year old was struggling to take a nap on Mother’s Day. “He would not go to sleep. He was screaming and thrashing around, and I was at my wits end,” she said. While this can feel frustrating, it’s what happened next that ruined the day since Katie forgot to remove the toys from his crib. “He grabbed a metal, toy airplane and chucked it right at my eye. It missed my eye by a centimeter but ended up cutting the skin next to my eye. I burst into tears, he burst into my tears” Her husband walked in to find a sobbing boy and a sobbing wife who had a bloody face.
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.