Mother’s Day is fast approaching (it’s this Sunday, May 13th, in the US, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland; my Brit readers celebrated -or didn’t- back on March 18). I find it interesting that there isn’t a backlash towards Mother’s Day as there is towards Valentine’s Day, although I find that both are very commercialized and in both cases there is societal pressure to participate. Maybe moms just wouldn’t put up with any excuses to not have a day of appreciation – although as is often argued by V-day opponents for V-day, every day should be Mother’s Day.
So are you doing anything for a special mom in your life? My mom’s getting a phone call and four rose bushes to plant at her new house (I don’t mind saying that online because I know the extent of her internet ability is looking up addresses for making Thai food deliveries, and only if the internet is already open to Mapquest).
But the question is, when is my first Mother’s Day? I have put forth that although Oliver is not yet “out and about”, I am a mom and ought to have some recognition of this fact on Sunday. Rainer disagrees and says that this is not the German way. He says my first Mother’s Day gift will not come until Oliver can make it himself (the typical present would be a drawing or flowers from my garden). He says it’s a holiday between kids and moms here, and that German dads have nothing to do with this holiday. Since I’ve often caught Rainer making stuff up out of the blue about Germany, I put it to my readers: How do Germans celebrate Mother’s Day?
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Ooo… I was SO mad last year when I did not even get a card (I was pregnant!). I mean– mad enough I did not make dinner! My husband will not make the same mistake twice.
BTW– tell R. that you are American and your feelings will be hurt (and his sex life) if he does not at least get you a card! Hmph! If that fails, let me know and I’ll gather a few friends and kick him in the shin for you!
My family always celebrated motherday like Rainer told you: it’s something between kid-mom only. It usually starts when kids go to kindergarden (age 3) to make same cute crafts. My dad always helped a little, like with cooking on that day. Basically we tried to help our mom by taking over some of her usual work at home.
Since you are a multicultural family, I think Rainer should understand that you are used to celebrate this differently and that you don’t want to give your way up!
Oops! I missed Mothers day in the UK again this year!
I think Matthias makes up some German ‘traditions’ sometimes when he doesn’t know the answer! I have found that Germans (according to Matthias) tend to be superstitious about celebrating things before they come to pass, so maybe that’s why Rainer isn’t into celebrating before the little one is out. That sounds like something Matthias would say.
Tammy, I think that’s true. I learned that Germans (opposed to Austrians) tend to celebrate birthdays as close to the actual day as possible. Austrians don’t mind celebrating a couple days or weeks before if no other day is convenient. At a German birthday party my parents (who are Austrians) were surprised that no one wished the “birthdaykid” Happy Birthday apon arriving. That was saved until midnight, so it get’s closer to the real birthday…
the way we did it was thus: i’d make a present (something hiddeous i drew or something ugly i crafted using salzteig) and my dad (when he still considered himself part of the family) would help hide the flowers in the cellar. so, yeah, it’s basically a kids’n'mum day, but the dad has to help out the little ones.
@maria: LOL! I’ll just make sure he reads your comment!
@Haddock: Oops! Just say you’ve Germanized and are celebrating the German one instead!
@Tammy & Bek: Rainer is very superstitious about that sort of thing (and the Germans I used to work with in Berlin too – they were SHOCKED when I had my birthday party BEFORE my actual birthday, but they had no problem celebrating their birthdays sometimes weeks late). Rainer didn’t even want to buy any baby stuff until the baby was born, but I showed him an article in Eltern magazine that said you should have everything set up 10 weeks beforehand and he relented. I can just imagine him running around buying all kinds of wrong stuff while I sit in the hospital with the baby!
@rita: We always made hideous things for my mom, but my dad always brought home two dozen long stem red roses for her. I don’t need anything that extravagant – although I did think my dad was an awesome, romantic dad for doing it when I was younger – a card and some flowers from the garden would be fine.
Ahem – my husband tried the ol’ “but you’re not my mother” trick a couple of years ago AND he also forgot to remind the kids so I got nothin’ at all. Nice. Dog house for him! NOT all Germans are like that, though, just he and Rainer, I guess.
He learned his lesson though.
@christina: YES! Rainer has used that exact line several times now. Sounds like our guys must think alike.