Since Sunday, I’ve been thinking about my apathetic thoughts on Mother’s Day. My family history always included celebrating everything that Hallmark celebrated. I, somewhat, did that while my kids were growing up just because my mother was around and a big part of it. Which makes me wonder if I continued it because my mother expected it. I’ve grown overly SICK AND TIRED with the commercialism and the being better than the neighbors mentality. For starters, weddings. The amount of money mothers and daughters are willing to spend on an extravagent wedding and celebration astounds me. All of this hoo ra for an event that will last for a very few hours, signalling the hope of 75 years together with pictures which will be put away somewhere after 5 years and loss of memory of the night with the frolicking and consumptions of too much alcohol. Most weddings these days cost a great home down payment. Seriously…is no one embarrassed by this?
Back to the holidays. I never have figured out why we celebrate MLK and the presidents with a day off for everyone, yet force veterans to work on Veterans day. Most folks just celebrate Memorial Day as a great weekend off at the beginning of summer and today’s generations have no idea that Memorial Day actually means something. We are no longer a Monday thru Friday work force…but christians are not fighting for their fellow christians to have Easter Sunday off work…Mother’s Day/Father’s Day/Take your kid to work Day, Grandparents Day, Earth Day, Give up smoking Day… It’s not about the sentiment anymore…it’s all in celebration of retail and so the media has something to talk about. St Patrick’s day. Does anyone really know what it is other than green beer day? I’m not even going to touch on Halloween,Thanksgiving and Christmas all rolled into one.
Which brings me to Television. I read the list planted on Facebook of the shows which are not going to be renewed this fall by the big 3. I thought you all might want to know what I have cancelled on the DVR. I can’t do Grey’s Anatomy anymore…I can give or take the Mentalist..I have problems with what’s her name…I’ve shut down on The Americans…too much drama with nothing happening. I quit Criminal Minds..love the characters but too much violence, especially violence to women. Mike and Molly is becoming hit and miss although I think some of the characters are refreshing. Oh and for the most part. I hate cliffhangers for the season finale. I will have to say Downton Abbey did throw a big wrench into their season finale…they killed off a main, beloved character. That was big and bold. Leave the appearances of death or the end of life out of the story line because next season, they are back with a scar. Similar to soap operas which are ridiculed for their back to life storylines…and you know everyone loves to bash those soaps!
Until next time…
Ninasusan 
I hear ya! ok just commented way too long. So deleted it. gonna have to post on this subject. lol But I agree with ya on all of it!
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@ghog – write this on the calendar….we agree…TV is crap!!!!!!
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TV is crap. The last show I watched with any regularity was Big Bang Theory and it got so it wasn’t funny anymore. I did enjoy the first season of Wilfred on the internet. That’s the only place I ever watch TV now. A You Tube documentary on the state of The Conspiracy is better than TV. Browse the net. It’s freer, there’s more stuff and you learn.
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Mothers Day this year was my boy taking me out to my favorite Hot Dog spot. He didn’t even get a card, and I never once got bent out of shape about that. Instead he bought me hot dogs and fudge and talked my ear off about everything under the sun and told me I’m the most important person in his life. Nice. I don’t understand the days off either – or what is celebrated and exactly why. There are 32 observed “holidays” in MA that I know of – maybe some that I don’t know of… I only know the usuals, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Memorial Day, 4th of July. We get off 13 “observed” holidays at work, one of them being MLK, but not Veterans day. In my family it’s a no buy rule usually. None of us NEEDS anything really – so we just don’t get things for each other unless its entirely voluntary. It works out pretty well. Weddings – ridiculous! Around here it’s pretty common for a $30K+ wedding to take place. Seriously!!!!!! That’s a stupid amount of money to spend on a wedding! My first was less than $5k – including honeymoon, and with W it was the JP fee , and friends threw a surprise reception a few months later. Perfect. I used to watch more drama on tv than I do now. my brain can’t handle it so only kinda sorta watch tv. Usually it’s sports or things like food network shows or storage wars and duck dynasty. W has me sucked into Bates Hotel this season. I stopped Greys and Criminal Minds a long time ago. Eventually – every show I like “jumps the shark” and gets stupid – so I don’t pay a lot of attention to TV. I think I could live without it.
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@tracy – I think you are right!!!
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@skanickadee – I knew you would have totally sensible thoughts on the matter 🙂
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I did not have a wedding, but if I did I think it would have been like Katys will turn out. Untraditional and very inexpensive. Such a waste for those big gigantic events. On Mothers day my daughter called me and started with ” I know you’re not big on celebrating or anything…” I’m not sure if I screamed only in my head or outloud but it’s not that I’m not big on celebrating, I would love to celebrate, anything. My husband does not celebrate anything and so my kids grew up thinking you shouldn’t. I tried but could never overcome the other half of the equation. Holidays are just depressing in my house.I don’t do the hour-long dramas on tv anymore. I gave up and go to bed at 10 now. If one looks interesting when it starts I’ll drop it on the DVR for boring weekends. That’s how I got hooked on Mad Men. Other than that it has to wait until it comes to Netflix and I hear enough people raving about it to peak my interest.I think as we get older we just get tired of the formulas and predictability.
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I think weddings go way overboard which is why 25 years ago I had 13 people at my wedding. I married in my dad’s backyard, I bought my dress marked down at Casual Corner and we had dinner at a local restaurant. People say you can’t do a wedding for under $30,000 – well, I am saying yes, you can.The thing is girls think that they have to be a princess for a day. Craig and I didn’t live together before we were married and while I don’t judge anyone who does, we didn’t feel comfortable with that so a wedding was my way to be with him 24/7 and I was old enough to recognize the stupidity of spending a fortune we didn’t have and there was no way we were going to ask our parents for that money. So we had a very small wedding, that cost us very little and well, it looks like it worked because here we are 25 years later still together and still madly in love.I think if people try they can take back the holidays. And I have a unique way to start – turn off the TV. Where is the most commercialization of holidays – on TV. I find my life so much less stressful, around Christmas especially, if I turn the TV off so I don’t have to watch the constant bombardment of commercials. I think you have to decide what you want to celebrate and why and go from there. I also think family members, while being realistic, need to tell each other what they need and what they don’t want when it comes to holidays. If you are not a fan of a certain holiday well, see how your hubby feels and go from there. I would kind of feel bad if my guys didn’t honor me on Mother’s Day but I also don’t need to be treated like a princess. I cooked and cleaned for our little celebration. But Craig did the larger part of cleaning and we both shopped for the food together. I think the problem is when people get so demanding. My mother and father in law always went down to the local cemetery for Memorial Day for a little memorial. I think that was nice. I never went because honestly that stuff makes me cry. I am not comfortable doing that in public so I never went. So there are ways people can choose to remember these occasions. Okay, I’ll stop now. You always have thought provoking blogs.
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