Mother’s Day makes me feel things. The most persistent feeling is that time with our little beasts is often wonderful and precious and challenging in equal measure. That makes it hard to step outside of the moment you’re in to appreciate the bigger picture. I will not get the full body hugs forever. Nor will I get the pre-pre-pre-teen sneers and annoyed sideways glances. In both of those cases, I still feel like an imposter and that someone should actually be parenting me. But, alas, I am the mom now. I can say with certainty that it does not mean I am authoritative in my decision making or that I have the answers, but it does mean I get the flowers. Most of the time, I buy them myself and I like it that way (control freak). I also get the snide looks and the hugs. I do my best to hold all of these competing sensations in my brain at all times and make space for all of them. It’s a busy mind and it's full of contradictions. Happy Mother’s Day. -Grace
8 things at least somewhat related to life with kids:
Do: Show this to your family so they understand that all festive beverage offerings should also be wrapped in bows (when they're bringing you breakfast in bed).
Read: Some thoughts on Mother's Day and mothers from Anna Quindlen, written almost 30 years ago but they resonate today all the same.
Delight: When it is warm, treat your visual and your gustatory senses simultaneously with flower popsicles. Why not impress the kids and the grownups?
Celebrate: Perhaps it would interest you to know that the mother of Mother's Day was very unhappy about how commercialized it became so quickly.
Wear: With warmer days ahead, you will inevitably find yourself wondering who makes the perfect little sun hat to protect your bb’s tender, not fully hardened head and their tiny, sensitive eyes from that ever-present flaming ball of gas in outer space. It’s this one!
Shop: A sporty but demure layer for the in-between season.
Moisturize: My mom (age 68, who never recommends a beauty product) was so into this moisturizer she made my sister-in-law (age 37) buy it too. A rare rec is a meaningful rec. -Court
Make: Roping the whole family into some Ruth Asawa-inspired sculptural art projects using wire, string and found objects. And if you're in San Francisco, don't miss her retrospective at SFMOMA for some seriously good inspo.
Something we popped a Benadryl before diving into:
🌈 Fact check! Something a child told us this week: Camels actually evolved in North America and used to be the size of rabbits
Behind the paywall: Yes, we are still talking about tassels. The passion for things with fringe cannot be contained.