Today is A Breakfast Holiday!
While many mothers look forward to the first day of school (think of the phenomenal success of the STAPLES! It’s the most wonderful time of the year commercial) I did not. I hated it. I was the mother crying at the bus stop or the classroom door as it closed behind my child. Gone were the carefree days of summer. Gone were my stress-free, well behaved, relaxed children. Now we had to deal with schedules, team sports and lots and lots of homework, all on too little sleep.After only one year of my children going to school, with the exciting/dreaded first day of school in a new town looming, I remembered something wonderful MY mother invented – the UN-birthday present. As a kid we only got presents on Christmas and our birthdays. To ease the pain of not being the birthday child, my mother would buy each of us something little as an UNbirthday present so we could just enjoy watching the birthday child open his/her gifts without envy. To ease the pain and anxiety of the first day of school for my children, as well as for me, I took my mother’s genius idea and expanded it into THE BREAKFAST HOLIDAY.On that first day of school the children walked into the kitchen to see it decorated with streamers, fancy paper plates, napkins and place mats, a small present, something delicious to eat, and most importantly a card. In that card I wrote all my hopes and wishes for them for a great year of learning and growing. I sealed the envelope after stuffing it with all my love and support, along with glitter, little stars and stickers. No matter what the school year brought, at least we were off to a good start.
Very quickly the breakfast holiday concept expanded to holidays that were regular school days like Halloween and Valentine’s Day, as well as someone in the family’s birthday.I just hate “ordinary time” and the breakfast holiday is my way of reminding myself that every day is special and precious in its own way, never to be repeated. I cherished the time with my children. And now I get to pass it on — to my children’s friends, boyfiriends and girl friends, their spouses and my grandchildren. As one of my friend’s said when his kids were young “the fun never stops.”I certainly intend to keep it going.© Jane F. Collen September 6, 2016IndexCardCure™ the fun never stops
