Growing up, my brothers and I would always forget about Mother’s Day.  When the day finally rolled around, we were bereft of a card (let alone a gift) and by noon our Mom would be bawling to our Father about how under-appreciated she was.  This didn’t sit too well with our Dad, whose primary concern was preventing a full-blown Mother’s Day meltdown, so he would take disciplinary action and we’d be forced to mow the lawn, clean the garage, or do all the dishes(1).  This yearly song and dance was wildly effective in one respect:  It made me come to associate Mother’s Day with a sink full of soap suds, and a lawn full of untamed grass.

            Now, I’ll be the first to admit that Mothers deserve a healthy helping of praise.  Even the worst of maternal figures did at least one thing fairly remarkable - she gave you life.  But let’s be frank:  Mother’s Day is a holiday fabricated by the Greeting Card industry, and the orchestration of one day a year wherein three hundred sixty five days’ worth of praise is to be lavished without abandon isn’t terribly convenient.  What if you happen to be in a fight with your Mom when Mother’s Day rolls around?  In that case, you’re not likely to want to tell her what a great Mom she is, are you?  Or what if Mother’s Day happens to fall right in the middle of an unavoidable business trip.  Well, then Mom’s all alone on the one day a year that she’s supposed to be adored.  The whole thing is just a little too regimented.

            Still, there’s no question that Mothers are entitled to vast amounts of praise.  So are Fathers for that matter, but let’s be honest, on the whole Fathers don’t crave validation the way Mothers do.  I’ve yet to hear of a Father breaking down in tears because his Father’s Day didn’t include a Hallmark Card.  In fact, most Fathers seem less interested in Father’s Day than Mothers, who feel the need to orchestrate an entire evening centered around a man that would rather kick his feet up and watch TV than listen to forced shouts of praise.  But Father’s Day is a topic that deserves an entirely separate entry (perhaps one that happens to fall around, oh I don’t know, Father’s Day), so I digress…

            The question is:  How to dole out the praise your Mom so dearly deserves without suffering the pitfalls of a disastrous Mothers Day?

            Well, it’s a cliche to say that Mother’s Day should be every day of the year, but cliches become cliches for a reason(2).  We shouldn’t simply bottle up all of our feelings of gratitude toward our Mothers so that we have a surplus with which to Blitzkrieg dear old Mom one day a year.  Instead, we should dole out thanks as appropriate.  If you feel that your Mother has done something particularly nice, tell her.  If you feel she’s helped you become the person you are, thank her (or don’t depending on your sense of self-worth).  It’s not just appropriate it’s the nice thing to do.  Then, when Mother’s Day rolls around, she won’t be so starved for affection that she’ll blow up crying when you forgot to buy her a gift. 

            But you’re still going to have to remember a card.  There’s no getting around that. 

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