Fathers, save your money and creativity for your anniversary — Mother's Day is about what children give their moms. But they need your help.
Whether or not schoolteachers send home an adorable gift or card, you must make sure your children are ready. I have found that if you establish a tradition your children can slowly take over you will have more fun and be able to watch your children grow year by year.
When my first child could carry a glass, we started a tradition of serving Mom breakfast in bed on Mother's Day. At first I made breakfast and children carried what they could; first a glass of orange juice and later the whole breakfast tray. Now that the children are old enough to cook, they take charge of making breakfast themselves, and I just offer a little gentle guidance.
Last Mother's Day, I heard pots clanging in the kitchen at 6:15 a.m. I slipped out of bed to investigate and found my daughter standing at the stove melting margarine in a pan, an empty breakfast tray next to the stove. I retreated to the family room to watch and listen.
My oldest son walked into the kitchen, watched his sister cook for a moment and then returned to his room to retrieve the yellow pansies he brought home from school and hid under his bed since Friday. He placed the flowers on the tray next to a plate of scrambled eggs.
I heard a pan go into the sink and then more cooking. When I returned to the kitchen, I found my daughter and son staring into the sink at a scorched aluminum frying pan, a blackened piece of French toast on the tray. I suggested they wash the no-stick pan they used for eggs and use it to cook more French toast. I got down a bowl and put it over the eggs to keep them warm while they washed the no-stick pan, sprayed it with cooking spray just to be on the safe side and read yesterday's comics out loud to each other while cooking more French toast.
By 7 a.m. the tray had slightly warm scrambled eggs, yellow pansies, salt and pepper, a decent piece of French toast (my wife doesn't like French toast), a bottle of syrup, a strawberry and an envelop that said "Happy Mother's Day." My children ate strawberries while my son tried to make a drink by mashing strawberries in a cup and then adding sugar and water. I suggested they substitute orange juice instead.
Then they got down a bottle of bacon bits and were about to sprinkle them on the eggs when I asked about it in a tone that made them second-guess their idea and put the bottle back on the shelf.
Remembering that their mother is not an early riser, my daughter asked when they should wake Mom up. I thought "in three hours," but then looking at the half-hour-old-eggs on the tray I said, "while the food is still warm."
It takes several minutes to wake up their little brother who likes to sleep in like his mom. He finally gets up and adds a white paper bag tied with purple string to the tray and a note on front that says "If mothers were flowers, I'd pick you".
They walk into my bedroom as I watch from behind. My wife is sound asleep so they shout "Happy Mother's Day" as our youngest leaps up on the bed followed by his brother and sister. They all watch as their mom reads her cards, eats her cold eggs and dry French toast (it turns out their mother likes their French toast) and smiles happily at them. By the time she is finished eating we are all lying sleepily on the bed, thinking of napping at 7:30 a.m. but laughing too much to actually go back to sleep.