As we celebrate this Mother’s Day: Being creative during our Quarantine

As we celebrate this Mother’s Day: Being creative during our Quarantine As long as anyone can remember, Mother’s Day was for spending it with Mom if she was still alive and within traveling distance.
Those of us who still have a mother may feel very blessed that she is still alive. Those whose mother has passed away may spend some time during the day reflecting on their favorite memories and happiest times.
Many of those may have made a trip out to the cemetery in years gone by, but this year, chances are that is not considered a necessary outing and we can only hope that in states where they take the mandate to stay home except for necessary shopping or visits to a doctor or such to the extreme, that no one will be getting arrested or put in jail for that infraction of the rules — as long as they stay at least six feet away from any other visitors to the cemetery.
This year’s celebration of Mother’s Day will have to be planned a little differently. The first thing that the children or family might do is teach their mother by phone or email how to use Skype or Zoom.
Once they know for sure that she is on board with that, then arrange the special long-distance (or in some cases even short distance, but still unauthorized in-person visit, especially if Mom is over the age of 60) party.
Balloons are always a good festive touch, and while the cake is optional since Mom won’t actually be getting any, you can have some gifts for her in front of the camera and she can tell you which one to open next. After all the gifts have been opened, they can be packed in a box and mailed to Mom as soon as possible, since mail is still on the list of essentials, and therefore mailing boxes should not cause anyone else at the post office to attack you out of their own sense of righteous indignation.
If anyone has a recorder, they can record everyone saying Happy Mother’s Day and sending Mom their own special greeting, which can also be sent to Mom in the box with her gifts for one more treasured item that mothers always keep. (She probably still has your first pair of booties and maybe even the first tooth that you lost.)
But why wait for Mother’s Day? If you can talk to her on the computer through Skype or Zoom, why not call her and chat several times a week or so? Mother’s want so little, but they always want to know their children love them and miss them, especially now, during these “forbidden” days of no visiting.
Those calls would mean so much more to many a mother than all the appliances you might otherwise have gotten her. And if a future visit to Mom is in the planning. Maybe as a part of showing her how much she’s loved, you could get one of your old piggy banks out and every time you have a camera-chat with her, you could show her you’re contributing more money to the “Next visit to see Mom” Fund. She’ll like that.
The coronavirus has encouraged us all to be more creative while still staying in touch the best we can. We know people who even play chess or checkers that way. (Maybe Mom would like a game!?)
So while you are still lucky enough to have your mother on this particular Mother’s Day, do something really nice for her using Skype or Zoom if you can. But if she is not computer savvy or doesn’t even own a computer, maybe you could arrange to have a nice Mother’s Day dinner sent to her from a local restaurant that is still preparing meals for delivery. If she’d rather you didn’t fuss over that, we hope she likes pizza, because we know for a fact that pizza delivery is here to stay and one large pizza of her choice could keep her happy for several meals. And I wouldn’t be at all surprised if some enterprising pizzeria bought up a bunch of carnations to give to each mother who received a pizza on this special day. (You might call them and suggest it if indeed fresh flowers are on the list of necessary things!)
We’d love to know how you surprised your own mom, so don’t hesitate to let us know!