{"id":3490,"date":"2026-05-08T00:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T00:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisdomwithwhiskers.com.au\/?p=3490"},"modified":"2026-05-08T00:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T00:21:09","slug":"the-downside-of-mothers-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wisdomwithwhiskers.com.au\/?p=3490","title":{"rendered":"The downside of Mother’s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Not everyone has a good relationship with their mother. It can therefore be tricky when Mother’s Day rolls around and the world seems to full of messages saying “Love your Mum”. How can you deal with difficult emotions around Mother’s Day? Here are a few suggestions.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mother\u2019s Day can be a difficult day for some people, especially when the relationship with their mother has been painful, distant, or complicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I often remind clients that there is no \u201cright\u201d way to feel on Mother\u2019s Day. Some people feel grief, anger, guilt, numbness, sadness, or even relief. Others feel a mixture of all of these at once. Those reactions are valid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One client I worked with dreaded the day weeks in advance. Every year, the pressure to send a card or make contact brought back old memories of hurt and disappointment. What helped was not trying to force warmth that wasn\u2019t there. Instead, we focused on creating a plan that protected their emotional wellbeing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together, we looked at what felt safest. For that client, it meant keeping contact brief, planning a supportive activity for the day, and giving themselves permission not to pretend everything was okay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They chose to spend time with someone who felt emotionally safe and to step away from social media, where the constant reminders made the day harder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What stood out was how powerful it was for them to shift the question from \u201cWhat should I do for my mother?\u201d to \u201cWhat do I need to get through this day with care?\u201d That small change made room for self-respect, boundaries, and compassion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mother\u2019s Day does not have to be about performance. For some people, it is a day for memory, grief, boundaries, or quiet survival. Sometimes the most healing choice is not to push through, but to be gentle with yourself and honour what is true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this day is difficult for you, you are not alone. You do not need to carry shame for finding it hard. You are allowed to make the day smaller, simpler, and safer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dealing with a difficult mother? Need to move forward? Call Wisdom with Whiskers Counselling at 0438 559 515, email wisdomwithwhiskers@gmail.com<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mother\u2019s Day can be a difficult day for some people, especially when the relationship with their mother has been painful, distant, or complicated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[196,144,218,297,278,1],"tags":[299,301],"class_list":{"0":"post-3490","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anxiety","8":"category-depression","9":"category-emotional-abuse","10":"category-mother","11":"category-trauma","12":"category-uncategorized","13":"tag-mothers-day","14":"tag-shame"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisdomwithwhiskers.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisdomwithwhiskers.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisdomwithwhiskers.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisdomwithwhiskers.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisdomwithwhiskers.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3490"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisdomwithwhiskers.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3495,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisdomwithwhiskers.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3490\/revisions\/3495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisdomwithwhiskers.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisdomwithwhiskers.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisdomwithwhiskers.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisdomwithwhiskers.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}