Originally Posted by
Gottalife 
I just had my birthday and aside from my partner, SR was the only other message. It doesn't mean anything. My kids are around 20, they have busy lives, and just like I did, they forget sometimes. It's no big deal. The stuff I do for them is out of love. It is unconditional and requires no recognition.
This is an attitude that has come from sobriety of course. In the self centred world in which I used to live, I didn't do anything without some kind of reward in mind. Its called self seeking, placing expectations on how people will react to something I have done... they should be happy, grateful, pleased blah blah, and if no appreciation was forthcoming, a nice festering resentment was the result.
The road to resentment is paved with expectation, and resentment is bad news for alcoholics.
Not sure I agree with above post, there is nothing wrong with expecting your kids to recognize you on mothers day and I'm not surprised the OP is sad, people live for their kids all year and should rightly feel saddened when that can't be acknowledged one day of the year, it's nothing to do with resentment just feeling a bit down that you are taken for granted.
Maybe for Christmas you should buy your kids a calender with your birthday marked into it. It would not be acceptable for me to forget my parents birthday and I would rightly expect to be held to account over it.