{"id":48715,"date":"2026-04-05T16:41:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T16:41:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/i-never-cared-about-easter-now-that-my-kids-are-all-grown-up-its-the-easier-holiday-for-them-to-come-home\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T16:41:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T16:41:21","slug":"i-never-cared-about-easter-now-that-my-kids-are-all-grown-up-its-the-easier-holiday-for-them-to-come-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/i-never-cared-about-easter-now-that-my-kids-are-all-grown-up-its-the-easier-holiday-for-them-to-come-home\/","title":{"rendered":"I never cared about Easter. Now that my kids are all grown up, it&#8217;s the easier holiday for them to come home."},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/68700c8085e81483682dc866?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Jennifer McGuire with her four sons\"\/><figcaption>\n<p>Courtesy of Jennifer McGuire<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>I used to focus on Christmas, but it became complicated as my kids grew up.<\/li>\n<li>I stopped competing for holiday time and chose Easter as our new tradition.<\/li>\n<li>Now I host a low-pressure Easter and let go of expectations around Christmas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I have never cared about Easter as a holiday. Not just because I&#039;m not religious, although I suppose that&#039;s probably part of it. <\/p>\n<p>Historically, Easter has not made sense to me, especially as a mom. Am I buying presents? Chocolate? Decorating the house? Am I wearing that pastel sundress my algorithm is aggressively trying to sell me, even though it&#039;s still 50 degrees outside? Why is a rabbit delivering eggs, and why is he hiding them?<\/p>\n<h2>I ignored Easter<\/h2>\n<p>These were minor irritations for younger me. The single mom raising four boys in a small town. I was the custodial parent and the holiday-maker. <\/p>\n<p>When I was this mom, I had the privilege of deciding against Easter as a holiday because, let&#039;s face it, I got to decide all of the holidays and every other day of the year. When I was this mom, I could afford to give Easter the cold shoulder in favor of Christmas. The Big Show. The main event. <\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69c6bcd18e44c01630d31869?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Four brothers\"\/><figcaption>The author&#039;s kids, when they were little, during Easter.<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy of the author<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I made a real meal out of Christmas, throwing myself into wringing every last magical moment out of the holiday. I baked their favorite cookies. I bought them holiday pajamas. I hosted their friends for parties. Decorated the tree with them, wrapped gifts with them, watched movies with them, sang carols with them.<\/p>\n<p>That was before. Now I&#039;m a new kind of mom. A mom of adult sons. <\/p>\n<h2>They have other plans now that they are adults<\/h2>\n<p>I am realizing that I&#039;ve spent the past few years fighting to get that Christmas back. Auditioning to be on the main stage of Christmas even though we all know I&#039;m more of a benevolent bystander in my sons&#039; lives these days. <\/p>\n<p>I&#039;ve watched them do their best to include me in their holidays. I&#039;ve watched them try to navigate Christmas with their partners and their partners&#039; families, their dad and their friends, and their work, and even just try to find a moment for themselves. It&#039;s a lot. It&#039;s too much, <\/p>\n<p>And even though I know they&#039;re trying so hard to wedge me in where they can, I inevitably get my feelings hurt or just get lonely or maudlin or stop being any fun at all.<\/p>\n<p>The thing is, I like to be fun. It&#039;s fun to be fun. So I&#039;m changing the game.<\/p>\n<h2>I&#039;m making Easter our holiday together<\/h2>\n<p>This year I&#039;m taking over Easter. No one else seems to want Easter for all the reasons I&#039;ve already mentioned. It&#039;s ripe for the picking. I&#039;m going to become the default Easter mom everyone&#039;s dreams of. <\/p>\n<p>I am going to drive to the city where they live, and we will eat together. A big brunch of all our favorites, either at a restaurant or I&#039;ll cook in someone&#039;s home. I&#039;m letting my sons pick. We are planning an afternoon movie at a cool little art-house cinema, where we will eat our Easter chocolate, then go for drinks afterward to discuss. We will order several plates of table fries and pick at them together. We&#039;ll go back to my son&#039;s house for board games in the evening. Eat more food. This will be our new thing. This will be my new thing.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69c6bd2a8e44c01630d3186a?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Mom with four boys\"\/><figcaption>The author wants to make the holidays easier for her adult kids.<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy of the author<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I fought Easter for so long, and now? Now I&#039;m excited. I&#039;m excited to make life easier for my adult kids, to take one small pressure off their backs when their lives are exactly as full and great as I always hoped they would be. I&#039;m excited to redefine Easter weekend as a relaxed, easy break. No gifts, no expectations, no decorations, no pressure.<\/p>\n<p>And when Christmas comes around, I&#039;m going to just let it go. Maybe even try something new and go away for a little holiday all my own. Because I&#039;ve already had my perfect holiday with my kids.<\/p>\n<p>I&#039;m the new default Easter mom. Why didn&#039;t I think of this sooner?<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy of Jennifer McGuire I used to focus on Christmas, but it became complicated as my kids grew up. I stopped competing for holiday time and chose Easter as our new tradition. Now I host a low-pressure Easter and let go of expectations around Christmas. I have never cared about Easter as a holiday. Not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-48715","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48715\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}