Mother's Day

As he rolled into view, all bed-hair and sleepy eyed, I looked at the clock.  Early for him – it was still only 10.00am.  Could it be that he was keen to honour my special day? 

“Well?”  I ventured, “What do you say?”

“Sorry?” came the default teenage reply.  .  My son is always in default teenage mode – if in doubt, sound apologetic, change the subject and move on. I blame his father

“No.”  I replied somewhat tersely, while trying to maintain my beatific motherly vibe.  “Happy Mother’s Day!”

“What, is that a thing?  Saying Happy Mother’s Day?”

I was stumped.  Do people say that?  It would be highly inappropriate to someone who is not one’s mother of course but for the life of me, I cannot recall it ever actually being said.  I am sure it has.  I spent the rest of the day covered in confusion and in an existential mess.

My point however is that special days are very important in Family Law.  We do a lot of arguing about them.  How should Christmas work between separated parents?  Is Easter worth time and attention? (I would say – no.  For kids, Easter is to Christmas what sparklers are to fireworks, all expectation then pfffffft…nothing).  How should Birthday parties operate?  Should both parents attend school plays and parents’ days or stagger them? 

It is puerile to say that every case is different and no one size fits all etc.  Apart from the fact that it is a statement of the bleedin’ obvious, it is not always true.  There is a solution to fit all cases – at least for Mother’s Days.  In this one area at least, there is no sexism.

A child should stay with their mother on Mother’s Day and with their father on Father’s Day – job done.  It’s not exactly rocket surgery or brain science is it?