Archived Article By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published May 12, 2006 Click here for the current edition Mother's Day Is A Problem I like Ella Brennan's thoughts about Mother's Day. "I think we ought to get rid of it," she said, some years ago. "I think we should replace it with Mother's Week." The National Restaurant Association says that Mother's Day is the biggest fixed occasion for dining out among Americans. About forty percent of us dine out in restaurants on that day. It beats Valentine's Day by six percent and New Year's Eve by ten. And that's the bad news. Every restaurant in town is full. And with people who are only occasional diners. They certainly have a right to dine in restaurants, but they create more problems for restaurants than frequent diners do, and return less profit and tips. Every year I am astounded by the number of people who call me and say, "I had a great idea! I thought that it would be nice to give Mama a day off from cooking and take her to a restaurant on Mother's Day." As if this were the first time anyone thought of that. If only these geniuses had the flash of insight sooner than 10 a.m. Sunday morning. Balancing this off a bit is that almost every restaurant where you might consider taking your Mom is open on Mother's Day. That includes many restaurants not customarily open on Sunday. It's not enough, though. All restaurants will be busy. There will be special menus to make it easier on the kitchens, which are still stretched because of a lack of staff since the storm. There will be higher prices in some restaurants. There will be rushed or absent service. Maybe everything will go perfectly. But the risks are too great, if what you want from Mother's Day is a reasonably good meal with no major upsets. That's why Mother's Week would be such an improvement. The moms could be honored and fussed over better if their visits were more spread out. The best we can do now (and I highly recommend this) is to go to dinner either very early in the day, or rather late--say, three in the afternoon, after the mobs have departed. An even better idea, however, is to stay out of restaurants entirely, and cook at home. Enough dads and sons and daughters cook well enough these days for a beautiful repast to be put on the table without Mother having to lift a finger. (Of course, that means a good clean-up, too.) But if Mama says you go out on Mother's Day, you go out on Mother's Day. Later in the newsletter is a list of ideas. © 2006 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com