By Heather Cabot, The Well Mom
Around this time last year, when I was surveying preschools, one of the toddler teachers I met gave the moms a talk about Mother’s Day. She said, “I want to save you some aggravation when the holiday comes around in a few weeks. Plan your Mother’s Day yourself. Tell your husband how you want to spend it and then arrange it yourself. You’ll save yourself a lot of disappointment.” 
At first, I was put off. Who was this stranger with this sour sounding advice? But the more moms I told about this weird encounter, the more told me they kind of agreed. That may be because for many moms, Mother’s Day is far from a day off.
“Even if they have a hands-on husband, moms are still the ones who haveto remember to pack the diaper bag or remember to bring the extra pairof underwear,” laughs Los Angeles life coach and owner of Mothercraft Coaching, Carley Knobloch.
She suggests we need a Mother’s Day mind shift. “Make Mother’s Day every day,” says the mother of two. In other words, get into the habit of being good to yourself throughout the year. It’s the message she hopes moms will take away from her first ever Mothercraft retreat in Malibu, California next month. Knobloch wants to impart to moms that if you show your family that you need time for yourself (whether it’s to go to the gym, take a bath or just take a deep breath), the annual holiday will take on much less significance…and you’ll probably be a much more energized and happier caregiver.
“You have to teach people how to treat you. You have to take the initiative to inspire your children and your husband to be kind to you all the time,” she explains.
Part of that process involves recognizing that both you and your husband are entitled to down time during your busy lives. Knobloch says it’s important for partners to acknowledge that not only do we need to carve out time for self-care, but that sometimes we need the people who love us to give us the nudge to do it. She says she tries to encourage her husband to go out for a bike ride and he reciprocates by watching the kids while she browses at the Farmer’s Market.
Once it becomes a family routine for each of you to enjoy time-off, Knobloch says you can never underestimate the value of saying thank you to reinforce just how well your time-off was spent. 
“It inspires people to be kind when they know you really appreciate it,” she says.
