CLEVELAND, Tenn. — Hielene Tubbs, along with other mothers in the room, sat at a table with pink plates on a lime-green table cover.
They ate cake, peanuts and cheese crackers and drank tea while children sang to them and presented them with gifts.
“I wasn’t expecting this much,” said Ms. Tubbs, 37. “I am pleasantly surprised.”
All the attention was part of a Mother’s Day celebration put on by kindergarten students at Blythe Bower Elementary School. One of the gifts given to the moms was a laminated, fill-in-the blank card that gives the children’s perspective on their mother’s age, favorite food and how pretty she is.
Most students filled in the words “flower” or “butterfly” when asked about their mother’s beauty, but one student said his mom was as pretty as a horse.
Six-year old Joshua Vawter said his mother must be age 8 because she’s bigger than any other kid at his school.
“They are hilarious,” said Cynthia Pierce, who came to have tea with her 5-year-old granddaughter, Alexandria Shepherd.
According to Alexandria, her mother is age 72. Ms. Pierce said she couldn’t stop laughing because “I’m grandma and I ain’t but 49.”
The goal is to honor mothers, grandmothers and aunts while also generating community involvement with the school, said Chelsea Hammond, a kindergarten teacher at Blythe Bower.
“We want to connect the parents to the things the children do here and we want the children to learn kindness and manners,” Ms. Hammond said.
A mother of eight, Elizabeth Shepherd of Cleveland, rubbed one son’s stomach while holding another son’s hand. She said she came to support her son Jamie, a kindergartner at the school.
“I was shopping and realized the time and rushed to get here,” Mrs. Shepherd said. “I knew I didn’t want to disappoint him.”
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