I usually get nothing for Mother’s Day or my birthday except an “Oh, it’s Mother’s Day?”
So, this year, since I am in deep needle envy with folks that have the Addi and KP Options sets, I printed out pictures, where to get it and retail price and put the mother’s day date on the page and taped it to the fridge (now tell me you didn’t see it Miss “OMG My thighs!”)
I did the same thing with the iPod and put my birthday (a month after Mother’s Day).
All the kids have jobs now, so I’d better get at least one, or next Christmas is going to be awfully bleak.
:noway: Your kids don’t get you [I]anything[/I]? Whether I get gifts or not usually depends on finances, but I always get a card and sometimes flowers. I hope they get the hint!
I always at least tell my mother “Happy Mother’s Day” even though we have a very strained relationship. I’m knitting her a purple shawl for Mother’s Day and her birthday at the end of May.
DH always says he doesn’t have to get me anything for Mothers Day as I’m not his mother. I would agree w/that (of course I’m not his Mom!!) but the same goes for Fathers Day!!
I have to be specific, too, if I want to ever get anything I want.
I wish i could tell my mom happy [I]anything!![/I]…
As for me…
My older girls are just starting their lives and barely have gas money. (with the price of gas…who does?) So i dont expect anything from them. I will get a happy mothers day and sometimes a visit on the day. Since i dont see them much anymore, A visit is what i want anyway.
My son is only 6 and Its up to daddy to make mothers day for me. I usually like the gifts he makes me over anything that could be bought. And they will go and pick me some wild flowers. (i like that too).
But i dont like bought cut flowers…if your gonna buy me flowers, make sure its something i can plant and see grow from year to year.
I don’t expect anything, based on years past. The best gifts I’ve gotten from them, have been ones they’ve made themselves when they were little.
This is the deal, let me not make a Broadway production out of one of their birthdays and I’m the Wicked Witch. However if I get a little pouty on Mother’s Day or my birthday… I should know better. So I told my husband who will most likely bully them into buying a card while he buys the gift. It evens out, I buy his gift for his mother on Mother’s Day and her birthday, same for his dad on Father’s Day.
I hope you get what you want !!
I typically send my mom a card and flowers b/c she won’t tell me anything she wants. I always ask if there is something we can do for her and usually she says No. One year she floored me by saying Well, there is this one thing I’ve been looking at. She went on and on about how it’s too expensive and my brother and I would have to agree to buy it together etc. She finally spilled it and she wanted a small Vera Bradley purse from the military base for $35 !! I was expecting like $100+ so I literally laughed when I heard the price, told her I would talk to my brother and immediately called my dad to have him go get the purse on his way home from work that day.
Lissa, I’m with you. I have a twin but, I think you’re more like me than she is. We lost our mom when we were 13 and I’d give anything to be able to honor her on Mother’s Day. I want to send a reply to Angela but, have to measure my words for a bit. I’ll reply to her later. BTW loved your trvvn5 reply. I sent one too. Hope the yarn police or FCC won’t get after us: >).
Dear Angela, I’m sorry you’ve been hurt by the seeming neglect of your family. Sounds like you’re really holding lots back and if that’s true you must try to sit down with your husband and kids and discuss how you feel about being ignored on special days. Why not start by telling them how much you loved and appreciated their gifts when they took the time to make them for you and you wonder why that stopped. Sounds as if they’re old enough to make some pretty good stuff now. Try also to lighten up. I know that people leave hints on the fridge etc. but, hints can become something like catalog orders, the operative word being orders. I never did that. In particularly bad years, which we’ve had a few, I’d usually tell my kids all I require is a very simple monument and a half hour or so of adoration or maybe cook me a piece of chicken? They’d always smile and usually come up with something small that cost much less but was appreciated more. Last Mother’s Day they had a cook-out at my favorite hiking place in the woods. For the first time in a while all my daughters, sons-in-law and grandbabies were there. They know I like my family around me (you’ll see, with busy, busy, it gets less every year) and it was a wonderful day. Hang the gifts of stuff. Consumerism is not love. See if you can find a copy of George Carlin (maybe on youtube) doing his shtick about “stuff”. Very funny plus enlightening. Nobody ever said it better.
2 yrs. ago one daughter had unexpected surgery for ovarian cancer. Then her husband lost a very good job. 3 kids and recovering from cancer and of course, the concientious Drs. don’t care when you lose your health insurance. You can just go shinny up a greased rope! Somebody out there wish to argue the fact that health care must change, bring it on! Things are better now. New job and insurance and we have hopefully saved their home from foreclosure. Picture the things that can happen. If you faced losing one of those inattentive, self involved, thoughtless teeny boppers would you really care what kind of stuff they gave you for whatever?
You’ve raised your family to be productive members of society and that’s wonderful. If your kids have just begun working and are starting from zero in their bank accounts it’s not unusual for them to try and keep everything they make for their own needs. If they are smart they’re scared about how much it costs just to stay alive these days. However, teach them something about budgeting and if they have all the pods and pads and tivos, Oh My! you can also teach them about giving 10% to charity. And who knows maybe you’ll become their favorite charity? Good luck and hang in there. Jean
I love my kids, but when I see them going crazy to find the perfect gift for a boy they just met or a friend they haven’t even spoken to in months, I get a little peeved. It’s little stuff like that that can make you steam.
However, I have decided that this Christmas I will give them exactly what I have gotten from them this past year. And I will expect them to figure it out on their own. It’s not that I am mad, but it’s beyond time that they learned to be considerate.
I agree compleatly!!
Just make sure you can sleep with yourself. Perhaps the route you have chosen, isnt the right one. Perhaps it is.
Maybe a very open and honest family talk might be in order so you can spill your feelings to your kids. Then they know how you feel without any doubt.
Thats how I would handle it…but i dont belive in alot of BS games.
I dont want/mean to offend…just stating my feelings on the matter.
I have asked my son and DIL not to get me anything for Christmas, birthdays, Mothers Day, etc. I don’t need any more “stuff” and since we live 1300 miles apart they don’t have a good handle on the things I would want anyway. All I want, or ask from them, is a phone call to update me on their lives and kind of include me in them. I always get the phone call and am thrilled with that. I couldn’t be happier with any kind of gift.
