Mother's Day adventure

I hope everyone had a great Mother’s Day, whether you are a mother or not. Ours turned out to be more interesting then I had imaged it would be.

This was an unusual Mother’s Day because Linda and I had both of our mothers over to our house to honor them. We don’t usually mix family gatherings since our mothers just barely tolerate each other and are very different. This was the first Mother’s Day for Linda’s mother since the death of Linda’s father. Her sister was going to spend the day with her in-laws and her kids. My brother and sister were not going to be able to travel to us this year, and our daughter lives far away, so it ended up being a small gathering of just the four of us… me and the three mothers. And because of this, I assumed that it would be a quiet day and a rather reserved time without involving any wife-led marriage components to the day. Linda had other ideas.

As I was preparing the meal, Linda went and picked up our two mothers. I thought it would be a nice gesture towards Linda’s mother to be wearing one of the aprons she had given me. So I picked out the plainest of the three and put it on as I cooked. I figured that I would let Helen see me in it, then take it off as I set the food on the table.

All went well as they arrived, marveled at how nice the house looked, how great the food smelled, and finally on me cooking and wearing the apron. Helen immediately commented on how thoughtful it was for me to being wearing her gift, though stated she was surprised that I had picked the plainest one for the occasion. “The red apron with the white and yellow flowers would look better for a spring serving.”

My mother had a surprised looked on her face seeing me standing there in such a feminine apron. Linda explained to her that Helen had given me three aprons that she no longer used as a “house-husband gift”. Though she knows I stay home and take care of most of the housework and cooking, my mother knows nothing about my feminine role within our marriage. (I am not sure how much Linda’s mother knows about it. Her sister has been told but I am unaware of the extent of Helen’s knowledge. However, at Easter she gave me a hug and I am sure that she felt my bra straps when she did.) Linda proceeded to show my mother my apron collection which consists of the other two Helen gave me and three very frilly ones that Linda has given me. I was hoping that Linda would just show her the ones from her mother. However, Linda decided that this was a perfect time to show my complete collection. My mother was rather shocked as she held up the frilly ones and commented “my, these are very pretty. Does he wear these often?”

Linda replied “he wears an apron whenever he cooks or cleans, but we save the prettiest ones for special occasions.”

“Oh, like what kind of occasions?” my mother asked.

“Well, when we are entertaining guests.” Linda answered.

“Aren’t we guests?” Helen smiled.

“Yes, but he wanted to wear one that you gave him for today.”

Helen reached over and took the frilliest one and handed it to me saying “I think you should wear your best one for today in honor of the mothers.”

I glanced at my mother and saw that she was waiting for my reaction. Silently I reached back and untied my apron and took it off as Helen held the other for me to slip on. I think they may have seen the tenting on the front of my shirt from the bra I was wearing, so I quickly took the other apron to wear. They all giggled and laughed as I put the frilly apron on and tied it in back. I felt pretty silly standing in front of my mother wearing an ultra feminine apron as it looked almost like a dress with full skirt and ruffles on the shoulders. They commented on how nice it looked as I got back to cooking. I had to leave it on throughout the meal and cleanup as they enjoyed coffee and conversation at the table while watching me work.

At one point during the afternoon as I was refreshing their coffee Helen commented that if I wasn’t wearing slacks that it would look like I was wearing a dress. I turned beet red as I filled my mother’s cup, afraid to look at her. Leave it to Linda to add to my embarrassment as she commented offhandedly “maybe for Father’s day we will have him do that.”

As they were leaving, each gave me a hug and I am sure they felt my bra straps and each of their hands rubbed and lingered over the telltale bulges. At that point my secret was pretty much out to them. In fact my mother commented as she was going out the door “It sure is nice that we girls could all get together like this.” I know I was being included in her thought.