Sunday, May 10, 2009

Obviously I got married on the wrong day

Thank goodness I married the right guy. But you know the problem of having your birthday too close to Christmas? People can only handle so much celebrating, and given the choice, they of course choose Christmas. This year our anniversary came the day before Mothers' Day. So not only am I faced with the usual dilemma in my house of Mothers' Day being a celebration of my mother-in-law, but this year I am also deprived of my child on a day she should be celebrating me. Because she is . . . get ready for this . . . with my mother-in-law! How did this happen? By the MIL trying to help but, as usual, not thinking things through quite all the way before making plans. And not consulting me or realizing that as a working mom I actually want to spend time with my child on the weekend.

The MIL bought tickets for she, Sophie, and I to attend an all-Mozart performance yesterday afternoon at which she claimed "children will be performing!!" There were, if you count a few teenagers who were virtually indistinguishable from the adults. Poor Sophie. What the MIL thought was a "marvelous!!!" performance was interesting for about 20 minutes. The rest she spent with her head in my lap receiving the best scalp, ear, and neck massage I could dish out. She was a good sport about it.

The MIL then took her for the rest of the day and an overnight, so Husband and I could go out to a nice dinner at one of our favorite restaurants.Poor Sophie again: The MIL kicked it off with lunch at Carrow's, a place Sophie wisely recognizes as having "very bad food."

Fast forward to Sunday, MOTHERS' DAY, and where is Sophie? At church with the MIL, serving as an usher because the MIL couldn't find anyone else to greet and hand programs to the eighteen or so members of the congregation. On a bad day, I see a vast religious conspiracy, but then I remind myself that the MIL does not realize she is potentially subverting our personal beliefs because she does not realize that we are not a Christian family. Not that there's anything wrong with being that; we're just not.

Husband and I spent a quiet (not really in a good way) morning cleaning out the garage, and now he is driving across town to secure what I really want for Mothers' Day, my girl. Later this afternoon, he will drive back over to bring the MIL over for her Mothers' Day dinner. We're having ham, because as Husband observes "Old people love ham." And Trader Joe's has a knock off of Honeybaked Hams that is pretty good and need only to be removed from the fridge and unwrapped. Truly, the excitement never ends around here.


I hope all my mom friends are having a good day. Enjoying breakfast in bed? A fancy brunch? A spa treatment? Just because I can't doesn't mean I don't want you to.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ha! Your day sounds much like mine, save for the anniversary and the fancy date night. My in-laws hijacked my son today too.

Tomorrow will be better. I hope.

Kate said...

Wow - that's all a bit thoughtless on the part of the other family members, even if they are perhaps only trying to be the opposite. Although I can't really see how recognizing only the MIL as "mother" on mother's day accomplishes that.

as you might imagine, I spent Mother's Day changing diapers, watching in dismay as spit up coursed down my child's neck and onto my pants then the couch, listening to whining, and grocery shopping. Whee.

Jackie said...

This cracks me up because I have no children but am constantly thinking about the small ways my MIL gets under my skin. You know, just not really thinking things through...ugh.

Happy Belated Mother's Day to you :)

Kim said...

Our anniversary is May 25, which on that year was the day before Memorial Day (I was being a thoughtful bride...nobody had to take off a day before or after our wedding for travel). However, in the nearly 23 years we've been married, about 10 of our anniversaries have been spent at the ballpark (and usually not the same ballpark), or working like soldiers to prepare for giant graduation bashes, but mainly just thankful we made it through another day. And since I wasn't a working mother when my kids were little, my greatest gift was a day away from the house all by myself. I think yesterday is the first Mother's Day in recent history that I can remember that I didn't hit the mall. And that is only because I was exhausted from hosting yet another kick ass party for our friend's retirement. I think there were at least 100 people in my backyard at one point Saturday night!

My MIL's birthday is at the end of April so she always gets the shaft for a birthday/mother's day combo gift. But since she's not my mother and she drives me up the freaking wall (can you say pentecostal?), I don't feel too guilty about it!

Cid said...

To look at it from a fifferent perspective, I guess my only hope for my future as a MIL is that my daughter-in-law like to share their husbands with me.

Belle said...

Oh noooo! This post cracked me up but that stinks. With my boys is where I want to be on mother's day. We had such a great day but for some reason after they went to bed, I felt the need to clean out closets...again...on mother's day...why???

Have a great day!
Belle

tommie said...

feeling your pain...Husband took the kids to the park and to get haircuts. I woke up and they were gone until lunch time! I missed them running in and jumping on my bed. Husband thought he was doing the best thing! Oh well...

Glad you got to see her at least later in the day