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It was Mother’s Day on Sunday. You might have missed it (but that would have been unlikely considering the signs in petrol stations and Domino’s pizza outlets everywhere). This is a wonderful commercially designed opportunity to tell your Mum how great she is, and how much you love her.

So once a year you can buy something, apparently anything, which will allow you to demonstrate your appreciation for everything that your Mother does or did.

Forgive me for seeming to be cynical or ungrateful but I watch as these Hallmark holidays (Father’s and Valentine’s Day are the same) bring out the very worst in British society and the hyper-consumerism culture.

We’ve now reached the stage where Mother’s Day can be used in a wonderful game of ‘one-up-man-ship’ between young Mums as they test how much money young Dads are prepared to spend to demonstrate their 8-month old baby’s love for their maternal parent.

You know how it goes.

“What did Frogmella get you for Mother’s Day?” (Frogmella is 17 days old).

This year I did nothing for my wife for Mother’s Day. All I did was speak to my kids the week before and asked them what they wanted to do.

I explained to them that I would help and support by buying or paying for things that they wanted (reasonable usage policy applies). My eldest is 16, my middle is nearly 14 and my youngest is 10. They have the whit to sort out Mother’s Day for themselves.

In the end, they made cards at home and I wrote a card for my Mum (that my wife had bought for me) and gave it to her before she left to travel home from a visiting us on Saturday. 

We didn’t go out to eat somewhere special, and we didn’t buy anything that we didn’t need. Callum and I went to play football and the girls went to a horse event for the whole day.

I didn’t do anything special for my wife because she is the mother of my children, nothing more special than what I would do any other day. I helped as much with the ironing on Mother’s Day as I would any other time, if I can help with that it will take the pressure off Alison and allow her to carry on being a Mum in other places.

My wife is the best mother that I have ever met, apart from my Mum who is an extraordinary lady and for whom I owe so much; but that is the same for almost everyone isn’t it? Everyone’s Mum is the best mum they’ve ever met?

I don’t love my wife any more on Mother’s Day because it’s Mother’s Day and I don’t love my Mum any more either.

I love my Mum and wife every day and glad to support them, where I can, the whole year round.

It’s time we ditched the Hallmark holidays and tried to live them 365 days of the year (it would be cheaper too).

Blog post number: 1580