This weekend we celebrated Mothering Sunday…

And while I have plenty of Mothering Sunday experience behind me, this was my first on the other side of the fence. On the motherly side of the fence. And it was really a rather special day.

Little things hit me throughout the day – the sight of an envelope with the word ‘Mummy’ written on it; realising that this was the first card and envelope I’ve ever received addressed to Mummy.  And how many there will hopefully be in my future…

There were some lovely words inside the card too…. obviously from R rather than Munchkin as her hand/eye co-ordination still leaves a fair bit to be desired. One sentence read: “Thank you for being amazing, helping me grow and making me really happy.” I love these words. They are such simple things, but for a baby to be happy and well-fed is, in so many ways, the infant holy grail. And, as any mother will know, sometimes managing to even get that done on a daily basis seems like an impossible task. So, it felt incredibly important to have this acknowledged and to know that my efforts don’t go unnoticed.

The other thing that struck me about Mothering Sunday, was the same thing that recently struck me about Valentines Day. I think it is true that both of these days have become horribly appropriated by commercialism – if everything isn’t red and full of hearts, then it’s pink and yellow and sappy.

And yet, I actually think that Valentines Day and Mothering Sunday are two days we desparately need in our calendars. Life is busy, and we can get caught up with existing from day to day without ever really acknowledging how hard we have worked every day, raising our children, making them happy, making ourselves happy, going to work, thriving at work, keeping a relationship strong, staying together, supporting each other. If we are not careful, these aspects of our lives will just pass us by without ever really being noticed.

So it’s vital that we spend some time each year acknowledging the people around us for achieving these things and celebrating how far we have come and how much we do, every day.  Yes, of course it would be nice if we did this every month, or every week, or every day, even. But – see above – life. It gets in the way.

So,to set aside one day, once a year where you spend some time celebrating those people in your life who are more special than you could possibly ever convey in words, or that you are thankful for every day but never seem to find the time to tell them – well, that seems like a pretty bloody great idea to me.