Mother's Day this year unfortunately is like many of the holidays of my adult years. Someone is working, too much is going on, and the day gets neglected far more than it should.
This year my wife is working, and the person going out to brunch with the kids is me. I'm taking my son and daughter to brunch to see their grandma and grandpa Wigderson, and my brother and his wife.
My son is just now beginning to understand family holidays and family gatherings. My daughter will be happy just to see smiling faces and to eat something different for breakfast. She'll get to show off her new phrases, "Hi," "Whachadoing?" "Why?" and "Yes!"
The restaurant will be too crowded and possibly too loud for normal conversations. But the Wigdersons have never been known for small talk. Dad will tell a story often heard before. He and my brother will talk about work. My brother's wife and I will gossip about local politicians (look for something juicy in this blog monday). Mom will get presents. And then we'll all go home for a nice, long nap.
My wife will finally come home around 5:00pm. The house (despite my best efforts) will still look like chaos, dinner will be 50-50 at best, the Sopranos won't be on TV until 8:00pm, so my wife will probably go take a nap after reading the cards I bought for her.
It isn't fair to her, and we'll both say something about "someday" we'll have a nice holiday with just the two of us again. We'll take a moment today and remember that little apartment we temporarily shared just off 27th and Howard in Milwaukee. How she laughed hysterically when the Car-X air compressor released, scaring the heck outta me. Or the romantic evenings curled up in bed listening to the drunks at 2:00am pull into Taco Bell to place an order. My wife still does a great impression of the sound of the Taco Bell employee speaking through the speaker system that was aimed directly at our window.
In many ways, we're still that same couple, only now we have dogs, kids, a mortgage and so on... and we'll note that Mother's Days are rarely rest for the mom.
