Sometimes You Have To Say What You Want To Get What You Want

Yesterday was Mother’s Day and if I hadn’t said anything, no one would have remembered. So before the date, I marked it down on the spouse’s calendar who reminded the kids on the day. Sneaky, yes? Well, if you don’t say it, you won’t get it.

We don’t usually celebrate occasions very much. I know the spouse gets all stressed up just thinking of what to buy and how to celebrate. It just isn’t him. So, this year I decided to spare him and make myself happy at the same time. Sometimes you have to say what you want to get it.

May and June is a peak celebration month for us. We have the girl’s birthday, my birthday, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, our wedding anniversary, mid-year school holidays. This year its our 15th anniversary and my 50th birthday. Lots of reasons to celebrate.

So, I decided to have a one-in-all celebration. There’s no point going out on Mother’s Day or Father’s Day and rushing with the mad crowd. The kids are in the midst of exams and they are too busy studying.

So I wrote down all the upcoming important dates and brought it to my spouse. I could see his worried frown as I proceeded to announce all the upcoming dates. I could see him thinking of how on earth he was going to celebrate all of those dates so near to each other. Poor guy!

Finally, I told him that I would really like for him to take me to that place that he took me when we were dating and I gave him two dates to select. Both of these dates fall during the upcoming school holidays. We will have our all-in-one celebration then, my girl’s birthday, mummy’s 50th birthday, our 15th year wedding anniversary, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.

Of course he couldn’t say no. So now everyone’s happy. We’ll get to go to the place that I want, we get to celebrate, we’ll avoid all the crowds, we’ll save from eating out just once instead of 5 times and the man, well, he was simply relieved.

The moral of the story? Do not fret and become unhappy because your spouse is not the type to remember important occasions. Remind him and tell him what you want BEFORE the event, not pout and argue AFTER the event that was forgotten and not celebrated.