Every year on the second Sunday of May, when people remember and spoil their mothers, a friend is triggered because his mum has long passed on.
Most people do not even know how Mother’s Day even started.
In 1908, an American woman named Anna Jarvis petitioned the media and politicians to institute an annual holiday for children to honour and remember their mothers. The first Mother’s Day celebrations were organised by Jarvis in her home town of Grafton.
In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed off a bill that consecrated the second Sunday as Mother’s Day.
However, the rampant commercialisation of Mother’s Day would later rile Jarvis to such an extent that she urged people to boycott Mother’s Day. She was so outraged that she initiated legal proceedings against businesses that put emphasis on peddling cards and flowers.
Too late, as Mother’s Day spread wide and far.
In South Africa, the day is not a holiday but millions of children and adults use the opportunity to spoil their mothers, normally with a breakfast in bed and volunteering to relieve her of household chores for a day.
Regular readers of Straight and Two Beers would know that, like Jarvis, I’m reticent about the commercialisation of days like Valentine’s, Easter and Christmas.
The often unpaid work that mothers do to rear children cannot be confined to just one day of the year.
And as demonstrated by the friend I mentioned above, the day is often traumatic if you’ve lost a parent. It can also be devastating for those who struggle with infertility.
And what about those whose mothers were indifferent or abusive? Obviously then, the day would make you feel miserable.
I stand firmly behind Jarvis that the day should be scrapped, perhaps in favour of Parent’s Day or Carer’s Day, as most children are raised by foster parents in any case.
It should be enough to celebrate your mother on the occasion of her birthday.
The impact of good mothers on our lives is undeniable as they mould us into responsible and upright citizens.
However, the hoopla and fuzziness surrounding Mother’s Day does not recognise that society has evolved and a mother is not merely someone who carried you in her womb.
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