On Being Shallow, Part Two

Well, I checked my Facebook page yesterday morning, and found that my daughter had indeed posted a nice acknowledgement to me late on Mother's Day night. I thought I should feel guilty for casting aspersions on my children earlier, but I actually felt relieved, and a little curious.  It's almost as if Jenny, at least, might be reading my blog posts, although I'm pretty sure that none of my kids even knows I have one. In any case, my bruised ego has been assuaged, and I take back everything I said about my allegedly ungrateful children. I was just in a bad mood. There is both pain and joy in loving. On Sunday I was feeling the pain; today I feel the joy.

On Being Shallow and Petty

I have a Facebook page that I sometimes post comments on. As of now I have more than 150 friends connected to me on Facebook.  Most of them are either mothers themselves or have mothers, and many of them posted lovely comments to and/or about their mothers on this Mother's Day.  I put a remembrance about my mother, and even got likes and comments in return. Most of my relatives acknowledged it, but not my children. Not one of my children posted anything about having a Happy Mother's Day to me. Fortunately, I have a very loving daughter-in-law who was the only one to recognize me on Facebook. I am feeling sorry for myself, I know that, but it doesn't do one thing to make me feel any better. My children are the reason I joined Facebook in the first place: Jenny said it was the only way to know what they were doing, as they didn't call much.  My cousin Annie also supported the idea.  I don't know why this means so much to me - it seems so petty on the surface - but nevertheless it stings a lot not to be recognized on Facebook by my kids. I'm just feeling sorry for myself, but it hurts to have done so much and made so many sacrifices for my children, and not have any of that acknowledged. I never got a mention on my birthday, either.  Somehow it has become important to me that my children post a Facebook message to me or about me on my birthday, or Mother's Day, or other holiday, like so many other children do.  Stupid, I know. Selfish, too. Shallow, even. After all, they did call.  Kevin has never been great about family connections anyway, so I wouldn't expect him to make a fuss on Facebook. Ryan and Jenny have their reasons, I guess. Love hurts.