Recently Enjoyed Things | May 3, 2024
A friendly heads up that this is heavy on the Mother's Day content and there are no hurt feelings if, for whatever reason, you want to skip this one.
Important PSA regarding Mother’s Day.
First of all, it’s coming up quickly. Please don’t forget the mothers in your life. She gave birth to you. Or maybe she gave birth to your children. Whoever she mothers, it's probably the best and brightest part of her life, but GD it makes her tired. Every wrinkle on my face occurred after I started having kids - this doesn’t seem like coincidence.
I’ve been seeing a lot of mother’s day content, gift guides and the like and this is an area where I feel like an actual expert. Most of them are bullshit. Let me tell you what mom really wants -
To be left alone.
Fathers, take your children with you if you are running out for donuts in the AM. Going to the hardware store? You’d be surprised how many dads save this kind of errand for Mother’s day. Anyway, take the kids with you while she stays at home. Alone. Now there’s a gift.
Last year on Mother’s Day, I drove past the playground and I saw an obviously stressed dad with a diaper bag bursting at the seams on one arm, a crying toddler football clutched in the other, and a little girl with messy hair and jam on her face trailing behind him and I thought, you’re doing a good thing here, sir. I just knew their mother was at home taking a shower all by herself, maybe listening to a podcast uninterrupted. I’m just here to tell you - that is the thee gift.
A few other mother’s day ideas:
Don’t you dare ask her what’s for dinner.
If you can’t find your favorite jeans, ask Dad.
In fact, direct all inquiries to Dad. All day.
Speaking of dads, my husband always details my car on Mother’s Day. Acts of service are also very near the top of my Mother’s Day wishlist.
If you must, AirPods are a nice physical gift. I have children who never stop talking, and the noise cancelling is a sigh of relief for me, and they don’t seem to mind that I’m not listening to them. They just need to talk.
The caveat here is this probably only applies to mothers of young children. If you’re an adult child and all your siblings are also adults, your mom wants to see you or at least talk to you. Get thee to her. She gave birth to you and it really hurt.
First, some housekeeping: there’s some affiliate links in here. But aren't they everywhere? Anyway, if you click on something and buy it, I might earn a commission at no cost to you.
Recently Enjoyed
Reading
I just picked up Luckiest Girl Alive which has a Netflix movie waiting for me when I’m done. If you haven’t noticed my reading kink, it’s choosing books with a film adaptation to get mad about.
Watching
The Idea of You (Prime), probably like everyone else. I read the book a few weeks back and *see note above* I love to watch a movie version.
The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari (Netflix): After dinner, my family slowly settles into the living room to watch something before bed and choosing something that we all agree on is basically impossible. That said, this 2022 documentary about a volcanic eruption in New Zealand had us all transfixed a couple of nights ago. 47 tourists were on an island when it unexpectedly erupted. Yikes.
Shopping:
Alumni of what, exactly? IDK and IDC. I’ll be wearing this ambiguous crewneck all summer long.
Boden has captured my attention with striped bags twice in two months. I grabbed this big canvas pink and red number for toting beach towels and sunscreen this summer.
Related: it’s sold out now, but this in the blue and white color way was the other bag that got me. It’s currently my daily driver.
I haven’t bought these yet because I’m still shopping around for summer sunglasses, but I love these J Crew frames. Am I a pink girl though? I have traditionally been allegiant to the Rayban Aviator, so this feels like a change-up in my personality.
BaubleBar Stacking Bracelets // Okay, this one is just for fun! I love this smiley bracelet and would definitely wear something like this with my kids’ initials.
Recent Saves
I promise I won’t spend the next six months complaining about my job, but I want to set the stage that it’s consuming during the summer, our busy season. Last year, I told myself it wouldn’t repeat the 2023 summer experience and tbh, I’ve been working on my escape strategy for a little while now so this cute quote really resonated.
3 Things
To get Mom on Mother’s Day if you insist.
Okay, I am super serious about acts of service really doing the trick, but if your mom’s love language is gifts, I love something that is an elevated version of a basic that I use every day. I’m talking fancy lotion, fancy toothpaste, fancy coffee, a fancy bottle of wine. You know, normal stuff, but like, the nice version that makes boring things feel like an event.
Beautiful Stationary // Moms have 12,000 things to remember on any given day. A beautiful place to write down all those to-dos is such a treat.
Fancy chapstick // An elevated basic if there ever was one. Cherry chapstick does the job, but Laneige and Glossier feel so much more special.
Silky Pajamas // Mom is sleep deprived and it’s probably because of you (if you’re 2 years old and somehow reading Substack).
Sending You on Your Way
This aptly named piece - I Watched a Guy Eat a Barrel of Cheeseballs - from
is spectacular. Come for the headline, stay for the tarot card reading.How Unrealistic is Sex and the City Really? Listen, we know. But this is a fun deep dive. Via
Fully cosigned on this: I’m a better mom when I like my outfit from
.What will be the drink of summer 2024? I think this is in contention.
But before you go
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omg !!! this was great. thank you for mentioning me!!
I fully agree. I want time for myself!