Celebrating Mother's Day

This post has been written as part of a debate with 
Maggie from Red Ted Art and Laura from Littlestuff.  
We're inviting you to vote on your favourite viewpoint of Mother's Day over at Parentdish.  
Full voting details are at the end of the post.

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I personally find Mother's Day hard as I lost my own mother seven years ago but I try not to feel guilty for not visiting the cemetery.  I celebrate my mother by remembering her for the outstanding woman she was and I know she wouldn't want me weeping at her graveside.  


That said, Mother's Day this year will be no different to the other twenty I have experienced since I had my children.  There will be no lie-in for me, no breakfast in bed and probably no flowers or gifts.  But I don't feel sad about that because I know that my children love and cherish me every single day of the year... even if they don't show it at times.

Over the past couple of weeks I have received a deluge of PR emails, example as follows:

Dear Mummy Blogger... here are some gift ideas for Mother's Day that you might like to consider blogging about...

Cue one massive eyeroll from me as I read through a list of expensive handbags, overpriced accessories from high-end boutiques and perfumes that probably smell like my dog's farts.  All include a delivery charge and require payment by credit/debit card.  Not very child-friendly.  

But is Mother's Day really geared towards children?  I have always thought that the promotions leading up to the day are centered around gift ideas for men to give to their wives and this all makes it feel like an obligation.

Now the children are older, I don't receive 'interesting' gifts created at school from an old cereal box, a toilet roll tube, a cut up egg box and some randomly glued-on cotton wool and, to be honest, I don't miss them in the slightest.  But in the same respect, we have never had excess money so I haven't ever expected the children to be taken to the shops by their father to buy me something expensive and schmaltzy that keeps the flower shops and card companies in business.  I feel the same about Valentines Day so it's not exclusive... and anyway, how do you put a price on love?

I am lucky enough to have been in a relationship with my children's father for over twenty-two years but what about the single mothers?  Or the mothers who have lost children?  Does anyone think of them on Mother's Day or do you tiptoe around the subject?

How about we reclaim Mother's Day?  Why are Mothers - of whatever status - celebrated for just one day of the year?  Let us celebrate the special women in our lives whenever we feel like it.  I don't need a bunch of flowers that I will have to throw out after a few days.  I don't want an expensive gift that can't really be afforded.  I don't wish to sit in a restaurant surrounded by other families all with fixed smiles on their faces and whispering good behaviour threats through gritted teeth.  A simple "I love you" or "Thanks, Mum" will do for me.  And maybe an extra cuppa without me having to ask.

"The clock is running.  Make the most of today.  Time waits for no man.

Yesterday is history.  Tomorrow is a mystery.  Today is a gift.

That's why it is called the present."

Alice Morse Earle


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