Mother's Day and Children's Day?

Yesterday was Mother's Day. I enjoyed the fuss that was made of me and the lack of chores. Mike almost did the ironing, or at least a couple of pairs of his trousers, saved by a phone call from his dad and me not willing to watch the meticulous ten minute effort on one pair!!
I am all for Mother's Day, a chance to salute my own mother who I know I am so like and yet can only pray I can be half the Mum she is. As I looked round at church y'day tho I saw so many struggling having lost their mothers in the last year or so, the grief very real on their faces. I thought of friends who have that ache for a so longed for child, and I remembered a Mum who buried her little girl in the last month. How tough for these folks in a world which does not just say "thank you" and "let me do the dishes, put your feet up" but forces us in every shop to look at huge bright displays.
Our little boy really got into Mother's Day. At nursery there had clearly been a big secret all week and on Friday the secret was to come home. He thrust a package into my hands and then complete consternation when he realised that Friday was not Mother's Day. There followed a whispered conversation with the nursery teacher as he tried to work out how he would get this package home and then what to do?
"This is a surprise for you," he announced "and you are not getting it until Mother's Day" and I watched as he used it as a weapon all the way home wondering what would be left of it. He then engaged the assistance of big sister to help him hide it.
On Saturday when I returned from swimming with the big sister he announced. " I have been nowhere with Dad and you have not not to look up there!!" You have just got to love it!! He was so pleased with himself Sunday morning with all the surprises.
At lunchtime he was clearly thinking. "When is Father's Day?" he asked. He pondered the answer to that a little. "Well............ when is Children's Day?"