Mother’s Day can be tricky for us moms.  It’s a day all for us — for our kids (and usually our husbands) to shower us with love and affection and gratitude for the all of the things that we do.  It’s great.  It’s a wonderful idea, and I am always happy to be loved on by my kids for Mother’s Day.

But as moms, we struggle with it, too.  Because, so often, if you ask a mom, “If you could do one nice thing for yourself, anything at all, what would it be?” often the first thing that will come to mind is, “Time to myself”.  Which really feels beside the point of Mother’s Day.

The thing is, I don’t want to spend Mother’s Day away from my kids (I did, however, enjoy spending several hours alone yesterday, while Dan took the boys out shopping).  It isn’t just a day for me to get to do what I want, it’s also day to celebrate my family.  But, since it is also a day to celebrate ME, here’s what I want:  I want to get to do only the fun parts of being a parent for the day.  I want to spend the whole day with my kids, but I want to pick and choose the parts of the day that I want to participate in.  THAT is a major indulgence for me, because that is so much the antithesis of what it is to be a mom — we don’t usually get to hand-select the parts of the day we want.  As a mom, you’re in it fully, whatever “it” is.

So, for me, no diaper changes.  I get to sleep in.  I get to go to the bathroom, and shower, alone.  I don’t want to prepare a single meal.  I want my own of whatever food I’m eating.  I don’t want to have to walk with a fussy baby during mealtime or retrieve endless requests from the kitchen throughout the meal.  I don’t want to be in charge of finding hopelessly lost socks.  But I *do* want to cuddle, play Wii, be silly, play trucks, sing, hold hands, snuggle, eat heart-shaped cookies, hold a (happy) baby during dinner, Skype with my own mom (I wish I could have visited her), read stories and tuck my little ones in to bed.

Because what I want isn’t a break from my kids.  What I want is a break from the work.  The other 364 days a year, I’ll do it all.  My kids are awesome, but today is my day off from that other stuff.