For Most Single Moms, Mother’s Day is Kinda the Worst
A day meant to celebrate us does nothing more than show us how alone we really are.
My first Mother’s Day was only a few days after I had my son. His father’s family wanted to go out to eat and offered to take us out to Applebee’s in the next town over. I remember loathing the idea of trying to squeeze my four days postpartum body into acceptable clothing to go out to eat at a busy restaurant. If it had been up to me, I would have stayed home and cuddled my son, who was barely getting a handle on breastfeeding.
But as I awkwardly climbed in my ex’s small car, feeling out of place in my stretchy pants and oversized shirt, I got the inkling that this day wasn’t really about the mother in our relationship at all, but about the free meal he was getting out of the deal.
That was the first in a long list of disappointing Mother’s Days.
The last time I was with someone on Mother’s Day, he had obviously forgotten about it and spent the majority of the day running around to get flowers and cards for his mother and me. It was clear that he had put little to no thought into the whole thing. Bringing me a bouquet of withered Walmart flowers and a pair of shoes that were two sizes too big.
