Lovin’ Life 17/5/2018: Mother’s Day.


Mother’s Day seems to take on more meaning and complexity with each passing year for me.  It’s grown from a ‘simple’ love of my own mother, to gratitude and respect and more recently to a point of understanding more and more about our relationship (and life in general)  from the perspective of being a mother now myself.  

As the mother of a newly school aged child, the joy of receiving a gift that was carefully hidden the moment it came home in the school bag ready for the ‘big surprise’ on Sunday morning was new to me this year.

It wasn’t the giving of the gift that touched me most, it was the excitement with which it was made and ‘hidden’ as well as the anticipation of ‘you’re going to get such a surprise on Sunday, mummy!!’ that makes me gaze fondly at my new vase.  With just the hint of something stuck under one my contacts..

Aside from signposting my evolving role and experience as a mother, Mother’s Day has increasingly been about the friendships and relationships I have with women in my life.  Over the years we’ve been there for each other through all the challenges of trying to become a mother and then to the trials of early motherhood.  Now we’re here for each other as the parents of school aged children, just a bit apprehensive that we’ll be the parents of teenagers before we even blink our eyes.

My circle of mum friends has continued to grow this year and it’s been to be able to wish a few more women a Happy Mother’s Day this year.  It’s been a day of connection and reflection for me this year because I’ve also had in my prayers the hearts of women who’ve lost their mothers.

I have a number of friends who spent their first Mother’s Day as expectant mothers after travelling that long road of infertility, pregnancy loss and IVF.  As a ‘graduate’ of this pathway, I’ve felt this deep sense of happiness and a sense of ‘closure’ for these women and am sharing their excitement and anticipation from afar.

What does Mother’s Day means to you?  Have you gotten more thoughtful  and less commercial in observing it as the years have passed?


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