All the best things in the world start with mother.
Mother lode
Mother f*cker
Mother Nature
Mother of all…
Mother Earth
Mother board
Mother ship
Mothers get the shaft. I swear, the timing of Mother’s Day is one more reason moms have every right to become martyrs. I mean, must we plunk Mother’s Day into the middle of the busiest month of the year? May is worse than the holiday season. I don’t know when that happened, but it blows. It’s also the season of green, filmy pollen in the South. We’ve only just cleaned this nasty powder off of everything so we can finally stand to be outside. May is the time of year we cram in school celebrations and plan for milestones. School dances, testing season, teacher appreciation gifts, year end parties, baseball tournaments, soccer games, the list goes on. Many times, mothers have to share their day with graduation, and like moms everywhere, they will refuse the fuss, doting on the graduate instead. And then everyone will forget it was ever Mother’s Day. There will be no do-overs. Yet moms will carry on. Maybe she’ll buy herself some half price carnations at the grocery store on Monday.
Is this the patriarchy? We would never make fathers share their day with one of life’s greatest milestones.
It feels like Mother’s Day is an afterthought, despite the fact that the marketing of Mother’s Day slams into our psyche at all turns with flowery imagery and treacly prose. Families rush to make the day special, masking how everyone is actually tired and overwhelmed because May is the busiest month of the year! Flowers are ordered, cards bought, brunch reservations made. What mom doesn’t have a treasure box of handprint art, macaroni jewelry, and heart stickered cards? We cherish this stuff. Moms are often taken for granted, yet moms are always the ones thanked in Oscars speeches. At what point does being taken for granted shift to being honored with gratitude? Is Mother’s Day ever going to be something to truly celebrate moms or will it pretty much always be just another day? I tried to make it Mother’s Day Weekend, but that was quickly squashed. I ask for a day to do nothing. I’d like a clean house. I’d like to choose what to watch on TV. I’d like the boys to not bicker. Some of these things happen.
We should change Mother’s Day to a different month.
Moms are badass, no question. Our kids (and partners) might think we complain and nag, but they have no idea what we accept without complaint every day. Sometimes we break. We are not just human, mothers are super human. It matters not how we came to motherhood. We are a sisterhood, and so I send a virtual toast and a hug to all the mothers out there. May the day be all you hoped for.