Skip to main content

So What About Mother's Day?

I was looking ahead on the calendar to our next visit and suddenly realized it fell during Mother's Day weekend. A flood of mixed emotions hit me immediately.
  • Mother's Day is not a deeply important holiday to me. It's nice and all but I've never had super big emotions about it. 
  • The girls can't know what it is yet and won't have any big feelings this year. But...years from now...will this be a uniquely difficult holiday? 
  • So if no one cares right now can I just kinda slide this one under the rug and avoid all the drama? Please, please, please someone confirm this is a real option!?!
  • Ugh, but what about the birth family. Is this a big deal for them? Are there major traditions? Will this be a minefield of potential hurt feelings? Is there a tactful way to call them up and say, so, on a scale of 1 to 10 how invested are you into making this a big rigamarole?
While thinking this through I did some googling and found that the local zoo does a special Mother's Day event with free admission for mothers. If I pay for the girls then grandma, aunt, and I can all get in free. Pretty good deal.

I called aunt and asked her if that was okay with her. She says they don't have anything big planned. Looks like that's a go.

Phew!

Maybe this will be our new Mother's Day tradition? We all meet up at a neutral location and stare at animals rather than discuss our feelings. Sounds good to me!!!

You know, as I look at scheduling these visits maybe I need to always connect them to an event. It's twice the bang if the visit can also be the celebration and, more importantly, it gives us something specific to be doing together. Let's see...we can aim for Valentine's Day in February, Kate's birthday in March, Easter in April, Mother's Day in May, hmmm, last day of school celebration in June? 4th of July...the fair in August... This will take some work but I bet I can find a holiday for every month.

Maybe that's the way to define our boundaries to grandma. Hey, we're only going to see you on holidays. But, the good news is that there are a LOT of  holidays!

Who doesn't love Groundhog's Day!?!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Separation for Me

 One more note about yesterday. I noticed that when the girls were acting up yesterday I truly was not angry. I felt back in my old EI teacher groove where I could calmly observe and reflect to a student but never feel personally involved in the drama. It felt so nice! The equilibriam I was famous for when teaching but that I've struggled to find in my own home.  Being away was so good for me. Thinking other thoughts; being competent around other smart people. Life affirming to me as a human, not just the mother-drone trapped in a small house doing small things repeatedly all day long.  I absolutely have to have professional level conversation and interactions to maintain my sanity. Essential.

Practice

 This morning I was preparing Jane for her day. Upbeat and warm, but factual. Running through my expectations for her (be kind to others, tell the truth, don't sneak) and the consequences (removal from play with others). It's a familiar routine and she participated in it easily. But at the end her face hardened and she was angry. I asked her to name her feelings. First she attempted to deflect, said she felt sad. I asked again. This time she looked me dead in the eye and said, "talking about the bad things makes me want to do them".  Well, at least she's honest. (which, truly, is huge) I asked her tell me more. She said that me telling her she can't lie makes her want to lie just to see if she can get away with it. (The honest truth is that when she said that it made me angry, just want to lock her in her room forever. I have to fight my impulse and not show any reaction that would feed into, and distract from, the goal. But it's hard for me to walk away f

Inaugural Post

I think I need to write a blog. I keep searching for good blogs about foster care and none are exactly what I'm looking for. I need to read the work of deeply thinking people who are wrestling with the realities of opening their homes to strangers. But please be funny, too. And, mostly, I need to hear from people whose agenda does not include evangelizing--neither the Christian faith nor the lesbian lifestyle. I respect you both, but I'd rather just hear about the kids, thanks. So, here's the background info I'm always curious about when people provide a peek into their homes. Because context is everything. I'm Beth*. My husband, Theo, and I have been married for 17 years. We have three sons: Seth (16), Gus (12), and James (3). On November 30, 2018, we had two foster girls, Jane (3) and Kate (1) placed in our home. This is our first foster care placement. We are open to both fostering and adoption. (*All names are pseudonyms.) We live in the middle of the mi