There is an article floating around from a blogger with the Huffington Post, written by a mom sick of other moms trying to make holidays fun for their kids because it's making her look bad. Okay, so that's a bit of a dramatization, but she's all up in arms about moms who (specifically) hide gold coins for their kids to find on St. Patrick's day, because now here kids are asking for it and she finds that irritating. She goes on to say that St. Patrick's Day is a "phone-it-in holiday," that we really shouldn't be bothering with at all, especially since she's still recovering from Valentines Day when instead of a card like everyone used to give, kids are showing up with whole goodie bags for their classmates as though it were the "new Halloween". Which seriously, I'm good with. The less importance on Halloween in my life, the better. But I digress.
She complains about giving gifts in lieu of an advent calendar, 100 days of school celebrations, Pi Day celebrations, Dr. Seuss Day celebrations, the list goes on and on before she "beseech"es all of us to "take it down a notch" because she doesn't like disappointing her kids.
And I get it. I do. People have things to do other than beautifully paint eggs, or make a pie on 3.15 (and just what happened to the Ides of March, BTW?), but seriously, if I want to pump my kid full of asparagus on March 16 so he pees green all day on the 17th, that's my damn prerogative. I DO have time for that - in large part because I WANT to have time for that. There are people who don't celebrate Christmas or who don't have Santa in their home every year - do you think those people are writing blogs telling those of us who do to lay off so they don't look bad? No. And if they were, there would be a serious uprising. So what makes this any different? It's all personal preference.
Now, I'm not a mom who is going to spend a grand on a birthday party, or move the Elf on the Shelf 600x a Christmas season (mostly because I'm cheap, less-than-creative and I'll forget to move the darn thing), and I'm not making Santa tracks, or bunny prints or "trapping leprechauns" as is referenced in the article -whatever the hell that is - but I am trying like the dickens to make life exciting for my kid and to give him some traditions to look forward to and carry with him.
My mom and bio dad were married for nearly 10 years before they had me. In those 10 years my mom babysat all my cousins, and mothered many of them in many ways, and by the time we came along I think she was out of fun-mom energy. Well, maybe not out, per say, but I don't really have a ton of memories of interactive fun with her. I have great memories, don't get me wrong, but I'm not bringing any traditions to the table. My mom was and is a great mom - one of the best I know, and she worked her butt off both for us and raising us - but I just want my kid to have things that bring his heart home every year on special days. I want him to have a mom who made ordinary days special, and often, and was sometimes pretty silly about it. Especially in our transient military lifestyle - I want my kid to always feel like he has certain things to count on and expect, things that won't change when we switch posts or time-zones or countries. And yes, St. Patrick's Day is a "phone-it-in holiday," and all we did around was dye some yogurt green for parfaits and read a book, but my kid thought that green yogurt was about the best damn thing he'd ever had.
I'm not saying I'll ever be the birthday party planner of the century like my friend Meghan, or the chef/hostess extraordinaire like my friend Maria, or the creative genius that is my friend Mandy, but I'm darn sure going to try. If that means baking a pie on Pi Day (which I think is an AWESOME idea, BTW) then so be it.
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