3 Things I Would Love for Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day is fast approaching, and with it the pressure on husbands and children everywhere not to disappoint.  Let’s be honest, if your children are young and you’re married, it’s primarily up to your spouse to make the day special.  So husbands – and specifically my husband – here are three things this Mom would LOVE for Mother’s Day.

1. Be Me For a Day

The number one thing I would love for Mother’s Day is a day off from being “Mom”.  Don’t get me wrong, I want to spend time with my family on Mother’s Day.  But for once I’d love not to be in charge!

So hubby, this means you’re in charge for the day.  I’ll still help out – I’m not going to throw you to the wolves!  But I’d love if you took on the role of managing everything. 

For me, the best gift would be a day where I don’t have to make decisions.  A day where I don’t need to decide what everyone’s going to eat.  Where I don’t have to decide what we’re going to do, or what the kids are going to wear, or how we should schedule our day around naps.

I’d love to sleep in, and to get ready in peace.  Maybe even a chance to go to the bathroom alone, and take a bath without answering a hundred questions and dodging the toys and soothers that the baby loves to throw at me.  If you want to go above and beyond, give me time to blow dry my hair and even put on makeup.

Plan an activity.  It doesn’t have to be elaborate.  A picnic in the park, a trip to the playground, a walk – something simple is totally fine!  As long as I don’t have to be the coordinator, I’m happy.  Plan around nap schedules and meals.  Make sure we have snacks, diapers, sunscreen, whatever gear we need, and proper attire.  Make sure the kids go to the bathroom, and the baby is changed.   

Manage the schedule for the day.  Be the go-to person for meals and snacks, for questions and clean-up, for wiping bums and wiping tears.  Answer to “Mom” for the day and notice how often they say it.  Just be me for a day, and you’ll likely come away with a better understanding of what I mean by that whole invisible mental load thing.

Don’t worry, Father’s Day is coming, and you’ll get your break too!

(I feel the need to clarify that my husband is an excellent, very involved Dad, and on a normal day most of these tasks would be split between us.  Regardless, as is the case in many families, I’m usually to go-to person for the kids and the manager of everything, so I’d love a break from that!)

2. Take Pictures

Of the thousands of pictures that exist of our children, I’m in maybe 5% of them, and about 90% of those are selfies.  So my second request?  Take pictures!

Take pictures of me with all of the kids, and with each of the kids individually.  Capture those candid moments that happen throughout the day, as well as the posed ones with their adorable “cheese” smiles.  

This one is cheating a bit, because it’s an ongoing request, not a one-day-a-year thing.  These years are flying by so quickly, and I want to remember as much as possible – the exciting and the mundane.  And when the kids one day look back at pictures of their childhood, I’d like them to know that I was there!  

3. All About My Mom

This last one is very specific to me, but I have a feeling a lot of other moms would love it as well.  You may have noticed that I haven’t mentioned an actual gift.  That’s because for me the gift is definitely not the most important part.  But there is one thing that I’d really love.

You know those adorable All About My Mom questionnaires?  I would LOVE if you did one of those with the kids.  If you want to knock it out of the park, I’d love it even more if you could capture it on video.  We don’t take nearly enough videos of the kids, and they’re at ages where their answers to these are just priceless!

If you haven’t seen this type of questionnaire, they are absolutely adorable.  My boys have done variations of them at daycare, and the answers they come up with are hilarious.  I’ve compiled some of my favourite questions into a printable, which you can download here.  Dads, if you want to make your wife smile on Mother’s Day, this is an easy way to do it!

That’s it!  It doesn’t take much to make my Mother’s Day special.  And if the kids don’t cooperate and the day goes off the rails, don’t worry about it – just don’t make me clean up the mess! 🙂

To all Moms out there – wishing you a very Happy Mother’s Day!  I hope your Mother’s Day is everything you want it to be!

To all Dads out there – good luck!