This one's for the moms

ChatGPT Image Oct 20, 2025, 09_53_40 PM (1)

Hi Friend,

Mother's Day hits different when you're doing it from two sides at once.

This year I'm celebrating as Jamie's mom (embracing the toddler chaos), as a mom-to-be who is very pregnant and very ready to meet baby girl, and as a daughter who is maybe, finally, starting to understand what my own mom was actually doing all those years.

I used to think my mom just had it together. Now I know she was doing what I do: figuring it out, saying yes when she meant maybe, and loving us in ways she probably never got credit for because we were too little to notice. I notice now. (Hi mom!!)

So this week's Sprout is for all of it. For the moms in the thick of toddler-hood, for the moms-to-be holding their breath, and for the moms of grown kids who still show up. Especially those moms.

One gentle reminder before you get into this week's issue: the person who does the most planning for Mother's Day is usually the mom herself. If you notice this happening, take something off her plate. She will remember it.

Happy Mother's Day. You deserve a full Sunday, a real meal, and someone else doing the dishes.

And a very happy first Mother's Day to Sprout reader Amanda, who welcomed her baby girl this past Saturday 🎀

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🌱 What We’re Doing

Your week in Charlotte, planned.

Mother's Day weekend (finally!!!!). There are at least three separate markets specifically called "Mother's Day Market" happening on Saturday, a lavender farm festival charging only $10 a carload, and Daniel Stowe giving away free plants to the first 500 moms who show up Sunday.

The PGA Tour is also in town at Quail Hollow through Saturday. Kids 15 and under get in free with a ticketed adult and strollers are allowed on the course. We took Jamie last year and I wrote up the one thing nobody told me beforehand about parking that makes this actually doable with a stroller. Read it before you go.

✨ A few standouts:

Breakfast with the Birds at Carolina Raptor Center Saturday morning: early trail access, continental breakfast, and a live raptor up close. Sells out. Book it now.
Mother's Day at Daniel Stowe: free starter bloom for the first 500 moms, 30% off in the shop, live music, vendor market. Pre-register before you go.
Hippie Daze at Dallas Lavender Farm: $10 per carload for a full-day festival in a blooming lavender field with a petting zoo. Worth the 45-minute drive.

👉 Check out all 46 events!

🚨 On Our Radar

Quick hits you'll want to know about.

Pineville Regional Library Update: The Pineville Regional Library is still closed due to damage from a car crash 2 weeks. Please be sure to check the library’s website for updates on their reopening before you plan a visit
Mother's Day is Sunday. To save your family some guessing, I put together a very honest gift guide full of things I would actually want to open this year. Forward it to whoever needs it.
Clean out your shelves this week for a free beer. Front Paige Media is running a book drive at OMB through Saturday for Books on the House NC. Bring 5+ new or like-new books (kids and adult both count) to the LoSo or Ballantyne location and get a free beer of your choice. One per customer per day.
The Short Years is running their Mother's Day sale right now. The Toddler Years upgrade is $15 off and the baby book is $10 off. I did the baby book with Jamie and I'm getting one for our girl too. They only do sales twice a year so if you've been on the fence, this is the window.
Charlotte Metro Babywearers meetup this Saturday at Mind Body Baby HQ on Selwyn, 10:30am-12:30pm. Sample wraps and carriers available to try. I care about this one because carrier fit actually matters: bad positioning can contribute to hip dysplasia and most people don't know. Free, no commitment.
For the mom who is exhausted and questioning everything at 3am: There's a poem I print and frame for every new mom I know. I tell them to put it next to the rocking chair. It's written from the baby's perspective and it will make you cry in the best way. Read it here.

🌳 Where We're Playing

One place we loved this week.

Sprout reader Katelyn sent me a tip I'm passing straight to you: brown sugar latte from Waterbean Coffee on Main Street, then walk three minutes to Jack D. Hughes Memorial Park. The trail around the baseball fields is paved (stroller-friendly), the restrooms are real and accessible thanks to the concession stand, and the playground is waiting at the end like a reward. The park is tucked right behind the Pineville Library, which means when it reopens you have a natural second stop built in. It's one of those routes that sounds simple until you're actually doing it with a coffee in hand and a toddler who doesn't know where they're going yet.

The playground was basically empty at 10am on a Sunday, which is either perfect or disappointing depending on your kid.

Here's the full scoop →

My Mother's Day Plan

(if you want to steal any of it)

Saturday we're having both grandmothers over for brunch. Then Sunday David and Jamie have a few things planned for me, which I may have had some input on 😉

I told David the one thing I wanted was to sleep in, which for me right now means being allowed to go back to sleep after I wake up at 7. So he's taking Jamie out of the house until at least 9:30. I will hear them leave. I will roll over. I will read my book in total silence and it will feel like a vacation.

When they get back: coffee and bagels. Pop Up Bagels if David does this correctly. We'll do lunch outside or in the sunroom and let Jamie run until he's ready for a nap.

Our pool club is doing a Mother's Day event that lands perfectly during naptime. Table massages, free food, and me reading my Kindle in the pool while Jamie sleeps and David holds down the house. If it rains I'm still leaving and going shopping alone, which honestly sounds just as good.

After nap, if we have the energy, we're heading to the Whitewater Center. My one requirement is that David is in charge of packing the car, the bags, and keeping track of Jamie while I sit somewhere and drink an athletic beer and watch the rafters. I will contribute nothing logistically and I will feel great about it.

Home for bedtime, which David is handling. I'll probably decide I want to do part of it anyway because I always do. Then takeout and that's the day.

It's not fancy. But I designed every part of it and nothing on the list involves me being in charge of anything I didn't choose. That's the whole point.

One tip if you have a baby in that sweet spot: sitting in a high chair, not yet walking, still relatively containable. Last year we did a 4pm reservation at Steak 48 and it was one of the most memorable experience we've had as parents. Early enough that the restaurant isn't packed yet, nice enough that it feels like a real Mother's Day dinner, and there were other families with babies everywhere. The bar area works too if you can't get a reservation. If your window for this is now, PLEASE use it. It closes faster than you think.

This Sunday I hope someone hands you a coffee while it's still hot and tells you to sit down. You've earned it.

Have a great week!

💚 Emily

Founder, The Charlotte Sprout

P.S. Being pregnant on Mother's Day means I get two mimosas worth of credit and zero mimosas worth of actual mimosa. The audacity.

Help The Sprout grow. If one idea made your week easier, please forward this email or tag @thecharlottesprout so more Charlotte parents can find us. 🌱