Mother's Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day, a time honored, Hallmark tradition. As I do every year, I made my mom breakfast in bed with my sisters and presented her with a sappy card. I think that I have a tendency to take my mom for granted, instead of really appreciating her every day. This is not uncommon for people my age, but I still feel guilty about it. I don't think that I do that with my dad, and tend to recognize his hard work and sacrifices more readily than I do my mom's. I think that is because my mom is a stay at home mother, while my dad owns a business and must work outside the home every day. I don't always realize what hard work it is to run a household every day, and what it takes to keep a family of six happy and taken care of. I think because their is no monetary benefit, no tangible reward for her work, and all stay at home mothers for that matter, that we tend to respect the father more. We do live in a patriarchal society, it would seem, and I definitely seem to fall into that. I am hoping that even by writing this, I become more aware of my tendency to view my mother's services as a given, rather than a gift.