Does it suck to have your birthday on Mother's Day?
The folks in the above photo are a big part of my peeps. If you've read this blog for the last few years, you've occasionally met them. The woman in the middle is my mom and yeah, today is Mother's Day and we honor & miss her but that's only part of this story that's about her. The girl on the right is my daughter Amy and this piece has even less to do with her although we're all happy you'll be moving back to Chicago this summer...even though I'll probably see you less than having you live in SoCal..
The blond girl in the picture is my youngest daughter Kimi. You met her a few times last summer when she got married. Today she turns 24 and has the bad luck to have her birthday fall on Mother's Day. How sucky is that?
Here's how birthdays work...IT'S YOUR DAY!! You're supposed to get all the attention! You get pampered, gifts, favorite meals...all that good stuff. Yeah, you can still get that but it tends to take a back seat when you have to share your day....especially when it's Mother's Day.
As you can imagine, this isn't the first time this event has occurred. You know it happens every seven years or so...that damn leap year thing messes up the math. I think this is the fourth or fifth time this has happened to Kim and by now she knows how to deal with this. But through the years it hasn't been just Mom's Day.
When Kimi was in kindergarten she started playing softball. She played for eight years. Pretty good player, too. In Chicago, that season starts in May and it seemed like almost every year we had a game on her birthday. Most kids would beg off and try to do something a little more birthday related...and I think Kimi would have, too, except she had another problem. Her Dad coached her teams. When you're responsible for for fifteen kids, it's hard to ditch the game. Usually we just played the game and went to dinner afterwards. Not all that special and really not much different than we did on any other game night.
Even worse were years there were no games. We had team picture night. OY! Imagine missing your birthday for that? That really sucked...even for the parents.
But I think the worst one was about six years ago. The red headed girl had her Bat Mitzvah on May 6th. Yeah, I know she was a little old for that but that's another story for another day. Yep...May 6, two days before Kimi's birthday and Mother's Day. I think the celebration pecking order for that weekend goes Bat Mitzvah, Mother's Day, and then Birthday. I may be wrong about the order of the first two but I'm sure about the birthday....SUCKS!!!!!!
So today is another one of those double holidays and I know Kimi will be having brunch with her Mom and celebrating her birthday later with her husband. I'm sure she'll get lots of calls, texts, emails and all the Facebook b-day greetings. She even gets a story about her published that lots of people will see.
Yeah, the day will turn out fine. Happy Birthday to my baby and maybe one of these years...yanno...whenever you guys are ready...no rush...you'll have your own baby and you can have your own double Mother's Day/Birthday celebration.
Love you, Dad.
Because it is Mother's Day, here's a gallery I wrote last year for my Mom. Happy Mother's Day. Miss you.
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