The Perfect Mother's Day Gift
Wondering what to get your mom or grown daughter for Mother’s Day? Searching for that perfect, unique Mother’s Day gift? Give the thing she wants most and the one thing many of us have so very little of - time.
Mother’s Day offers an opportunity to retreat and focus on each other, and the perfect Mother’s Day gift is connection whether you are a mother or a daughter. Give the gift of time.
My trips with my mother were mainly to see my grandmother in Louisiana. Mom would open up and I would always find out something new about her and in turn, sometimes she would learn something new about me.
Now that she is gone, I really wish I had known her better. I missed opportunities to get to know her on a deeper level. That is one of the reasons I first went on a mother-daughter retreat with my own daughter.
Mother-daughter relationships are complex and are one of the most important connections in a woman’s life. It shapes our sense of self-identity and sets the bar for our future relationships with self, family, friends, partners, and our children. These relationships can be complicated and definitely require care and maintenance.
We see ourselves - past, present, and future through one another and time spent together.
Mothers and daughters have a unique bond; the mother-daughter relationship is the strongest of all parent-child bonds. It is an unexplainable, internal understanding beyond just being able to relate. It is a knowing. It can be intimate, and it is always deep and always personal. It can also be full of empathy, compassion, and forgiveness.
An important part of self-care for women is exploring that mother-daughter bond.
Research has found that the part of our brain that processes emotion is more similar in mothers and daughters than in any other parent-child combination (mother-son, father-daughter, father-son).
As a certified life coach, I have seen first-hand the positive, life-changing connections that are made through disconnecting from the outside world and connecting with one another through my Living Life The Happy Way Galveston Retreats.
A mother-daughter retreat offers an opportunity to focus on building an understanding, making meaningful connections, and developing more compassion for one another which sews the seeds of compassion for ourselves - valuable self-care for women.
It gave my daughter and me a deeper appreciation for one another. She shared things and feelings with me that I had no idea about. It opened the door to better understanding and communication. I always thought my daughter and I had a good bond, but now it is even stronger. I can’t go back and change my relationship with my mom, but I can have an extraordinary relationship with my own daughter.
I’m making sure my daughter and I have that time together - going to mother-daughter retreats, girls-only camping trips, antiquing, or taking that bucket list trip on a cruise. Time to just get to know the woman my baby girl has become. And time for her to get to know the woman I am now.
One of my favorite sharing ideas that I have recently come across is that of a Memories Jar. A mother and daughter shared some of their favorite memories together by writing them on little slips of paper and putting them in a jar, so they can reach in and read one when they feel sad or miss one another.
I have learned so much about my daughter and myself through our mother-daughter retreats, and I cherish each memory we make.
There is nothing more valuable for a mother and daughter than spending extended, quality time with one another, and the most important thing you can do, the most valuable gift you can give both of you, is to make and share in-person time.
If you are interested in a mother-daughter retreat, my 3-day Galveston-based Mother-Daughter Retreat is a safe, judgment-free space designed to cultivate compassion, understanding, and togetherness. Galveston Island is beautiful and bountiful, naturally lowering your stress levels, and promoting feelings of happiness and empathy. Soak in the local flavor and salty vibes, and build memories to add to the jar.