Mother's Day has become to moms what Christmas is to kids. As much as dads and kids look forward to mom’s holiday, they also fear Mom’s expectations. Mother’s Day has developed into a commercialized holiday overwrought with expectations.
I wouldn’t give up this special holiday for anything. Best of all are the photos and cards that my little kids made in school for Mother’s Day. Their handmade cards on colored paper pasted with sticky flower petals and a love message written with dirty hands clutching assorted crayon colors are proof that they really love me!!! Their cards are priceless.
Hallmark makes a bundle...around 162 million greeting cards are sent, making Mother’s Day the third largest card-sending holiday in the world. Kids and dads honor mom by treating her in various ways. Some children may be inspired to serve breakfast in bed to mom. As they serve microwave pancakes, burnt toast and juice, crumbs are sprinkled on the sheets and drops of spilled coffee stain her pillows. Can you imagine what a mess the kitchen will be? Dad may decide to treat mom to a fancy brunch, but on the holiday, restaurants are crowded with crying babies and runaway toddlers picking through the food, sampling a bite of this and a fistfull of that. It’s usually a chaotic holiday at any restaurant. Most women don't want brunch with a crowd of strangers. Trust me, they want their work as a mother, their joy as a mother, their pain as a mother, to be recognized, acknowledged and honored in a genuine and consistent way.
Few holidays succeed in disappointing mothers and striking terror into the hearts of fathers on an annual basis more than Mother's Day. The holiday—which once served as a simple way to honor mothers—now conjures up images of disaster topped with an extra large, Hallmark card, covered with hearts, kisses and flowers, to demonstrate how much Mom is loved.
It wasn't always this way. Anna Jarvis spearheaded the first Mother's Day events in 1908 to honor her own mother, a Sunday School teacher and caregiver for wounded soldiers during the Civil War. Anna campaigned zealously for the holiday to become official, and in 1914, Congress recognized it as a national holiday. Quickly the floral and greeting-card industries discovered the commercial possibilities of the holiday. By 1920, disgusted by the prevalence of pricy cards and boxes of candy, Jarvis began urging people to stop buying flowers and cards for their mothers. In a press release, she wrote that florists and greeting card manufacturers were "charlatans, bandits, pirates, racketeers, kidnappers and termites that would undermine with their greed one of the finest, noblest and truest movements and celebrations." Going door-to-door, she collected petitions to rescind Mother's Day and spent the rest of her life trying to abolish the holiday she founded.
According to Esquire's 50 Best Gifts To Buy for Mother's Day, folks are spending around $150 per mother on anything from cards, a meal at a restaurant and flowers to extremes like an $180 Donna Karan robe or a pricey $289 designer purse
According to Salary.com, the average stay at home mom works 94 hours a week. Mom’s daily jobs include laundry, food shopping, cooking, cleaning, making sure homework is done, driving kids to classes and getting them on the bus. Considering all her duties, she would earn around $113,568 per year. In addition to their daily job at home, many moms today work a 40 plus hour a week job outside the home. A mother’s work is never done.
What about all those valuable lessons Mother teaches kids?Things My Mother Taught Me (from Splitcoaststampers)
My Mother taught me LOGIC..."If you fall off that swing and break your neck, you can't go to the store with me."
My Mother taught me MEDICINE..."If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they're going to freeze that way."
My Mother taught me ESP..."Put your sweater on; don't you think that I know when you're cold?"
My Mother taught me HUMOR..."When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me."
My Mother taught me how to BECOME AN ADULT..."If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up.
My mother taught me about GENETICS..."You are just like your father!"
My mother taught me about my ROOTS..."Do you think you were born in a barn?"
My mother taught me about the WISDOM of AGE..."When you get to be my age, you will understand."
My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION..."Just wait until your father gets home."
And, an all-time favorite - JUSTICE..."One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like YOU -- then you'll see what it's like."63
God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers.
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