Confession, I was a gumption on Mothering Sunday.

CONFESSION

I was a grumpton on Mothering Sunday.

Last weekend I was on my own with my two children as my husband was working away. This is the third Mothering Sunday in a row that he's not been here. 

Saturday was a super chilled out day with a lazy start just snuggling on the sofa and laughing a lot while watching The Mitchels V's the Machines. I thoroughly recommend it if you've not seen it yet. My husband had some flowers delivered to me ready for Mothering Sunday.

In the afternoon we ventured into town for my eye test, (turns out I need glasses) The children were really well behaved so we headed to an upbeat cafe afterwards for some lunch and on the promise of cake afterwards. While we waited for our food my eldest and I played Scrabble and the youngest was content pretending to be a chef in a miniature kitchen at the far end of the cafe. It was all in all a pretty blissful day. The only problem being I was over tired, and I ate things I usually avoid…

These are the lovely flowers my husband had delivered to me just before Mothering Sunday.

So Mothering Sunday arrives, and because it was supposed to be MY special day of rest and recognition I felt so sad to be on my own again. My children are only very young so after they'd given me the things I had bought for myself (carefully wrapped by my husband) they pretty much resumed the usual stream of demands. This teamed with the knock on effect of a sugar hangover and a pile of ironing left me feeling sorry for myself. 

Why am I talking about this? Because that weekend I had two very different days. The ingredients were essentially the same in so much that it was just me and my boys but the pressure that a label had put on that Sunday clouded my judgement of it. Yes my eldest had at one point pushed me off the sofa but rather than being grateful for what I had, my mind wandered onto what I lacked, and all based on what other people said the day should mean to me and the fun I thought other people were having that I wasn't.

I think this is why we need to get really granular about what it really is that we truly want and that brings us joy. Only then we will be able to build up our immunity to being distracted and disappointed by something that really shouldn't mean that much to us anyway. Every day is an opportunity for me to appreciate my children and pretty much every day they do something cute or funny, why should they love me any more on one Sunday a year or me them? Shouldn't we love and look after each other every day?

These are things I already know, my husband and I don't really celebrate Valentines because of this either. As a species we're mostly pretty clever and information is readily available, we all know things that are good for us but for whatever reasons we don't always do those things or we forget. With this in mind I'm thinking of starting a gratitude practice group. I'd love to know if this is something you have tried before or would be interested in joining in with? Maybe you have a friend who would be interested in doing it with you? If so pass this email on to them and suggest they subscribe.