Mother's Day...A Year After a Quarantine

As I sit here, glass of wine on the table, kids in bed and my husband folding laundry I can’t stop and think about what a year it’s been. I mean last year at this time I was climbing into bed after a Mother’s Day that I didn’t spend with my kids. I was amazed at the response I got about the blog post I wrote last year about needing space for myself last mother’s day, and after posting my blog I made a change. I started taking care of myself again, I slowly started adding in my self care routine, and my mother’s day hike with my friends was just the beginning. It felt good to write down and express my need for taking care of myself, and it actually made me hold myself accountable. Yes, we were in crisis mode, but I could still take 30 minutes for myself, and when I expressed that to my kids and husband they agreed.

So, this Mother’s Day looked a whole lot different. I remember on the hike last year agreeing with my 2 friends that we were going to take back Mother’s Day and make it truly about ourselves by again spending the day without our kids. That sounded great last year and I held on to that idea for a long time, but as Mother’s Day approached this year I found myself wanting to spend time with my kids on my day. I had done so much over the past year to create balance between being a business owner, mom,  wife, and myself that I looked forward to being celebrated by those who made me a mom. So, when one of my friends came to me and asked what our Mother’s Day plans were going to be this year I felt a bit torn. Torn because I loved spending Mother’s Day away from my kids last year, but because I was in a much better headspace this year I wasn’t sure I wanted to be away all day. So we came up with a compromise that couldn’t have worked out any better.

Saturday I sent my son and husband off on a boy’s night, which included a night’s stay at a local hotel, and my daughter stayed at a friend’s house for the evening, while I had a ladies wine night at my house. No kids, just a great group of women sitting around drinking great wine, and enjoying each other’s company. The night was amazing and when it was time for my daughter to come back home I was ready to crawl into bed and snuggle her and spend the next day with my kids.

Now, don’t get me wrong I had some Mother’s Day rules for this year, because after last year alone I knew how nice it was to just relax. This Mother’s Day involved me staying in my pajamas all day and I didn’t want to be responsible for any meals or kid drama. So I spent the day snuggling on the couch with my kids, taking a nice bike ride to our neighbor hood park (yes in my pjs…no shame here), and dinner cooked by my husband. All fights (because even on Mother’s Day there are bound to be arguments) were refereed by my husband and I didn’t even have to get up once to let the dogs out. And after writing this, I plan on heading to bed early and getting a good night’s sleep.

It was nice to spend Mother’s Day with my kid’s this year, and to reflect back on the year we all have had. And while I wore many hats the past year that I don’t care to ever wear again, I am grateful that I was able to find myself again even in a quarantine. This past year made me realize how important self-care is for all of us, (our kids and partners included) and I plan on leading by example going forward, so that other’s start to realize that if mama ain’t happy, nobody is happy.