Mothers Day 2020 - What will it be like for you?

In our surreal existence this year, Mothers Day is still a time to celebrate all Mothers, we just won't be experiencing it in 'the normal' way - that is fact.

One thing COVID-19 is teaching us is to slow down and, in most cases, to spend more time with our families.

But if your Mom is also Grandma, she's probably not living with you and therefore you can't spend time with her.

How can you make Mothers Day special for her?

Whether you can or cannot spend Mothers Day together, we can still figure out ways to celebrate her. Thankfully we can still order gifts online and send them to her, although not flowers. But what else can we do?

It's easy to buy a Hallmark card with a lovely message inside but in essence, that's rather trite, expedient but trite.

What if you sat down and wrote your Mom a sincere letter, talk about the moments in your life that stand out as wonderful memories with her, and then snail mail it. There's something to be said about receiving a letter in the mail as opposed to an email, especially as your Mom's generation grew up with snail mail.

It's also tangible, something she can sit down with in her hands and will probably read over and over again and treat as a precious keepsake.

MOTHERS DAY CAN BE A FAMILY PROJECT

If you are the Dad and the kids are still ... young(ish), organizing a secret surprise with them is a creative project and a bit of excitement in keeping the project secret from Mom.

The kids can make cards for Mom - they can write their "What I Love About You Mom" thoughts in the card and use color and drawings to illustrate it. Mom will love it.

Then there is the special day itself.

Seriously, Mom's should have the day off on Mother's Day

So what can the kids do for Mom?

• Breakfast in bed

• Cook a special meal

• Play 'Pretend' like you are at a restaurant

• set the scene and the table

• serve the meal and drinks like a waiter

Work with the kids to plan it out

• create a menu

• if you don't have flowers in your garden, get the kids to make paper flowers

• how can they make the table look wonderful ... candles?

Once you get them engaged the ideas will flow.

It may be hard to keep it a secret, but that will add to excitement of it if you can manage it.

Have a set time each day when you send Mom to her room (the kids will love that!) for some quality 'me' time, a break she will probably appreciate, so you and the kids can work on 'The MD Project'.

It could well end up being the best Mothers Day she ever had and one that she will always remember with love and a beaming smile.

Maybe it will become a new family tradition?

It's going to take a fair bit of planning given that 'getting stuff' these days can take longer than it used to take. Now is a good time to start and the kids would love to be part of the planning process - so many teachable moments.

Take lots of photos of the whole process, create a slideshow that you can all watch together at the end of Mothers Day. Figure out how to cast that to your TV so that instead of watching someone else's 'production' you can watch your own and regardless of whether you were able to keep it a secret from Mom or not, she will find it absolutely delightful.

Once you start to think about it, there will be endless possibilities.

It's all about creating the best experiences together which become the best memories for Mom and foundational memories for your kids.

In this crazy year you can create the BEST MOTHERS DAY

Cheers,

Trish