Let Me Spell It Out

Photo: zazzle.com

My mother-in-law got her first breakfast in bed when she was almost eighty years old. She was staying with us on Mother’s Day weekend, and when T and the kids made breakfast in bed for me, they also did it for T’s mom. She was very pleasantly surprised, and that’s when I learned this was a first for her.

I was shocked.

T will never hear the end of it, and Brother-in-law, you’re in for it, too, the next time I see you.

Now, my mother-in-law is a Mexican mama. She always fed everyone else, and would never ask for something like breakfast in bed. I believe it would never have occurred to her to want it. But she sure appreciated it when her grandkids surprised her on Mother’s Day morning.

I always get breakfast in bed for Mother’s Day. I suppose T asked me what I wanted to do for Mother’s Day the first time, and I must have told him that’s what I wanted, to begin with. T gets breakfast in bed on Father’s Day, and we also do it for each other on birthdays. And nowadays, the kids also help. And that’s how it should be.

The day starts with breakfast in bed.

You see, guys, just because your mother, wife, girlfriend, significant other doesn’t ask for breakfast in bed, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. When it comes to these kinds of things, women feel that it doesn’t count if they have to ask for it. And if she never has breakfast, that’s no reason not to do it. The whole point is that it’s something out of the ordinary and special.

So make her breakfast in bed. Be it for Mother’s Day or her birthday, or just as a surprise tomorrow morning. Instant oatmeal in a plastic bowl doesn’t count. It should be something out of the ordinary, with some extra effort put into it. On a tray, with coffee and orange juice, or maybe even with a mimosa. A tiny vase with a flower from the garden is a nice touch, too.

Oh, and the T-shirt? Not funny.

You’re welcome, ladies.