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"Mother&amp;#039;s Day is upon us this weekend, and once again, I&amp;#039;m looking forward to it about as much as I do Valentine&amp;#039;s Day. In other words: no big deal. I&amp;#039;d tell you it&amp;#039;s just another day, but when you&amp;#039;re a single Mom, it&amp;#039;s just another day coupled with the constant reminder that lots of your friends have men in their lives who organize the kids into making cute craft projects or help them carry the breakfast tray up to your bedroom, or take them shopping for a gift. They have men who take the kids out for ice cream and tell you to take it easy or go get a pedicure or something. Men who realize that, as the mother of their children, or someone else&amp;#039;s children, you have a value that is somewhere up in the stratosphere, and they&amp;#039;re going to let you know that. I don&amp;#039;t have one of those this year. Honestly, I only had a little of that even on the better years, but at least I had it. Now, like a girl who watches all her friends get flowers on Valentine&amp;#039;s Day, I just get to hear about how wonderful all the rest of them got to be pampered, while I get up and do laundry and keep the kids busy and make meals and get them bathed and in bed, eventually. I&amp;#039;m sure Anna will have gotten me something that I&amp;#039;ll love - she&amp;#039;s really good with gifts - and David made me some sort of sculpture in art class that he brought home yesterday but couldn&amp;#039;t tell me what it was. I adore it. And I adore them. My kids are the best gift every single Mother&amp;#039;s Day, and that helps. That helps a lot. So here&amp;#039;s a shout out to all you single Moms out there, who don&amp;#039;t get the flowers or the candy or the day off and have to go into work the next day or sit with a cup of coffee at your neighbor&amp;#039;s house and hear all about someone else&amp;#039;s wonderful Mother&amp;#039;s Day. You have value. You make the world a better place every single day just by raising your kids and doing your best. Your kids may not always tell you, but someday, they&amp;#039;ll remember it all, and value you all the more. Draw yourself a big, floppy flower with a fat purple marker and tape it to the refrigerator door, right next to the grocery list and the overflowing school calendar. Remember yourself today, and even if it&amp;#039;s only for a few moments here and there, indulge yourself where you can. Above all, value yourself. You deserve it! **Follow Ellie on Twitter or Facebook** "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/relationships/dating-marriage/a47942/happy-mothers-day/>