{"id":717,"date":"2015-05-10T00:34:32","date_gmt":"2015-05-10T00:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/?p=717"},"modified":"2015-05-10T00:34:32","modified_gmt":"2015-05-10T00:34:32","slug":"the-truth-about-mothers-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/?p=717","title":{"rendered":"The Truth about Mother’s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have a confession to make.\u00a0 And it likely won\u2019t be very popular.\u00a0 But when have you ever known me to do something simply because it was popular?\u00a0 Here it is.\u00a0 You ready? The truth is\u2026I\u2019m not super fond of Mother\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, I love my mom and I am glad to be able to honor her.\u00a0 But as a mom, as a single mom, this weekend is really tough. \u00a0I\u2019ve spent the better part of today either crying or fighting the tears that want to come, depending on the situation.\u00a0 Crying at work isn\u2019t typically the\u00a0most acceptable\u00a0way to greet customers, so I got by ok there.\u00a0 It was actually a good distraction.\u00a0 But it was difficult to hold back when I was at the grocery store and several people were buying flowers, and cards, and I was overhearing conversations of the planned menus that were being prepared tomorrow for all the moms.<\/p>\n

I keep thinking back to a couple years ago, my first Mother\u2019s Day after things were finalized.\u00a0 I remember sitting in Ihop with the kids, cutting pancakes and mopping up spilled orange juice and tending to everyone\u2019s needs, when suddenly I looked around me.\u00a0 It was like slow motion that I noticed all the families.\u00a0 My eyes went from one table to the next, to the next, scanning the faces of moms, and kids, and dads.\u00a0 That was the day I realized Mother\u2019s Day would never be the same for me.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, I managed to get my work schedule switched around tomorrow, so I can spend the day playing with my babies. \u00a0Assuming the weather cooperates, we\u2019re going to spend part of the day at Eckert\u2019s Farm over in Illinois where they will have rides, inflatables, and all kinds of other activities for the kids.\u00a0 But the other day when I called to make reservations for Mother\u2019s Day brunch and as I spoke to the lady on the other end, she asked how many.<\/p>\n

\u201cFour,\u201d I told her.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre there any children in your party?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, 3.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you said there are 4 total in the party, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

I wanted to scream into the phone, \u201cYeah, that\u2019s right!\u00a0 I\u2019m making my own reservation for my own brunch!\u00a0 And I\u2019ll be picking up the tab too!\u201d\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t her fault that things turned out like this, but it was just one more reminder that my life didn\u2019t go the way I planned.<\/p>\n

The reality is I am a mom with great kids that I wouldn\u2019t trade for the world.\u00a0 The other part of my reality is\u2026I do it alone.\u00a0 Yes, I have a fantastic guy in my life who has come through for me big time on several occasions.\u00a0 And yes, I have\u00a0the most amazing\u00a0friends ever who make sure I am never lonely.\u00a0 And yes, my kids and my mom and the rest of my family love me to pieces and I\u2019m so blessed to have them.\u00a0 But none of them are responsible for taking on the role of the other parent in my household.\u00a0 That is reserved for me alone.<\/p>\n

Trust me, I\u2019m not saying I regret my life choices.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not saying I want to be back where I was.\u00a0 But I pulled out a picture earlier of Mother\u2019s Day morning a few years ago.\u00a0 My three babies sitting on the floor next to my bed, crowded around a tray full of pop tarts and soggy cereal and something in a plastic wrapper.\u00a0 They had decorated big cards that read \u201cI love you, Mommy!\u201d\u00a0 That picture was taken the last time I got to wake up on Mother\u2019s Day to my babies\u2019 smiling faces.\u00a0 Tomorrow I will meet them at church and we will go off and spend a fun day together.<\/p>\n

And while there is definitely something to be said for sleeping in, I would trade that a hundred times over for the snuggles in bed, and a tray of soggy cereal and cold pop tarts prepared for me.<\/p>\n

I keep thinking about my friends that have lost their own moms, and my friends who have had several miscarriages or lost children, my friends who have been alienated from their children and friends that have struggled with infertility.<\/p>\n

Mother\u2019s Day is a beautiful sentiment to honor and celebrate the women who have brought us into the world and loved us unconditionally.\u00a0 But it is also bittersweet for many.<\/p>\n

The fact is we can\u2019t have any way of knowing what the experience is of anyone we encounter tomorrow.\u00a0 So the best we can do is to honor the moms of the world, wherever their babies are, on earth, in heaven, in their hearts.\u00a0 And tomorrow if you look around and notice a mom without a partner, or someone with sadness in their eyes, give them an extra smile.\u00a0 As a personal request from RRG, do what you can to pay it forward and spread a little extra sunshine.<\/p>\n

So to all of the women in my life, whether you are a mom or not, I salute you and celebrate you tomorrow for the beautiful souls that you are and all that you bring to this world!<\/p>\n

To all of the moms in my life, we have the toughest and most amazing job ever.\u00a0 Thank you for helping me navigate this challenging, rewarding, heart-breaking, exasperating, wonderful path of motherhood.<\/p>\n

To the ones who are grieving, if I could wrap you in a big Lindsey sized hug, I would do it!\u00a0 I am sending love and prayers to so many of you.<\/p>\n

To the three little people who made me a mom, I can\u2019t imagine life without you.\u00a0 You make me laugh, you make me cry, and sometimes you make me completely CRAZY.\u00a0 But I love you all a super, super, super lot!\u00a0 And I wouldn\u2019t trade you for anything!<\/p>\n

And finally to my own mom, there are no words to thank you for all that you have put up with from me, but my one hope is that I can be to my children even half of what you have been to me.\u00a0 Love you, Ma.\u00a0 Thank you for making tomorrow worth celebrating!\u00a0 Happy Mother\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

\"Mother's<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a confession to make.\u00a0 And it likely won\u2019t be very popular.\u00a0 But when have you ever known me to do something simply because it was popular?\u00a0 Here it is.\u00a0 You ready? The truth is\u2026I\u2019m not super fond of Mother\u2019s Day. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I love my mom and I am glad to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,7,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","hentry","category-bringthetears","category-onbeingasingleparent","category-randomthoughts","post_format-post-format-aside"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4eO4v-bz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":719,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions\/719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}