Mother's Day

I just celebrated my second Mother's Day as a mom, and this thought occurred to me.  I'm at a stage in my life when Mother's Day is still more about my mother and my mother-in-law, not so much about me.  Don't get me wrong; I enjoyed this Mother's Day and was pampered and spoiled just as much as anyone could hope for.  We spent the day with my in-laws, and we all had a great time.  My daughter is almost two and enjoys playing with her cousin, who is just two months older.  It's a wonderful opportunity to see extended family members and spend time together as a group, and the food is always great because my father-in-law barbecues and everyone contributes something (especially desserts).

However, the fact is that I would not necessarily choose to spend Mother's Day in this fashion if it was truly meant to be MY day.  My own ideal Mother's Day would involve sleeping in, followed by a nice breakfast (which my husband provided for me), and taking in an afternoon baseball game with my husband and daughter.  Mind you, my daughter will have to be quite a bit older (10? 12? never?) before she'll actually enjoy going to a ballgame with her mom.  But maybe someday she'll come along for a Mother's Day baseball outing just to humor me. My husband would definitely be humoring me, since he considers baseball to be his archenemy.

Perhaps we'll end up solving this by splitting one holiday into two celebrations.  One day (say, the Saturday before Mother's Day) can be reserved for my own immediate family party, and the other day (maybe Mother's Day proper) can be spent enjoying time with the extended family.  It works for Christmas/Christmas Eve, why not Mother's Day? Besides, how sacred can a holiday be if it was invented by Hallmark just to sell more greeting cards?