It’s that time of year when email and snail mail folders are filled with all kinds of good ideas about Mother’s Day. Take her to breakfast, OK, try brunch, and if that doesn’t work, think lunch;  as a fall back how about dinner out, Mom?

I love restaurants. I spend half my life dining out, and the other half dreaming about my next meal. So there is little doubt that I am food obsessed, but eating out on Mother’s Day draws a big Yuck face from me. After too many wonderful plans and too many spoiled experiences, my favorite option is to eat in. Let everyone else eat out and treat me as Queen for the Day in my humble abode. Works every time.

Sure, I’ll take breakfast in bed with the newspaper, please (this may be the last year you’ll have a printed paper to bring)! This is a good time to bring my first Hallmark card.

A lazy patio lunch works great. I can handle it.

How ’bout you BBQ for dinner, and I’ll settle for cheese and crackers and something sparkling, say champagne, midday–I’m pretty easy.

So what’s the MDEO (Mother’s Day Eating Out) debacle? Simply put, it’s too many people trying to accomplish the same end result at the same time. It’s very hard for restaurants to please everyone in this scripted scenario and thus difficult for them to shine as well as they can on this sacred day. That means guests walk away thinking the restaurant is the problem when the problem is too much, too many–as in too much of a good thing attempted by too many people all at one time.

It’s not that restaurants can’t pull it off but in a room with all VIP guests, i.,e. your Mom, your grandma, or your aunt– that’s way too many people who are important and way too many family members trying to please simultaneously.

So as a Mom my advice is quite simple: Take Mom out another day or evening. That in itself will be a special occasion. You’ll receive the right attention from the restaurant, and your decision will prove a winner. Buy her a flower for her backyard champagne cocktail and let her sleep in. The rewards are so much better.

Trust me.

Ask her.