Miss Anna Marie Jarvis-the founder of mother's day, is rolling in her grave yet again as Hallmark consumes more money from people to celebrate their mothers one time every year. I'm not trying to be a Negative Nancy every year but I just don't understand all of this commercialism.
I respect what my mom has done for me. I love her and I try to let her know as often as possible. I just don't understand, as a mother myself, why we are suppose to be celebrated once a year. I understand Anna's intent on wanting to make it known that mothers are the backbone to their children's lives. Those intentions are perfectly transparent, but as the years rolled on, Miss Jarvis herself started to boycott the holiday. Hallmark and all other card companies took it over trying to bank as much money as possible from it. Mother's day is the third largest retail holiday in the U.S. We've turned a cute and innocent act of doing something nice for mom into "Get her what she really wants this year," "Celebrate mom the right way with diamonds,"... What happened to hand made cards and those little coupon booklets for free foot massages or one hour of quiet time?
I sit here every year feeling these same confused and angry emotions. I don't expect my child to celebrate me once a year. Hell, I don't expect my child to celebrate me at all. She shouldn't be forced into celebrating my decision to birth her and raise her. How dare we sit here and expect our children to do something special for us on the second Sunday of May every year. Having a child is our own personal choice. My "Mother's Day" this year was spent by deep cleaning my house, washing my walls and flushing my AC condensate pipe, otherwise known as normal adult life. The dishes still need washed and laundry still needs folding and stopping it for one day isn't going to make me any less stressed.
The point here is, I see no reason we have to pick one commercial holiday out of the year to post on social media about our moms. Celebrate them as often as possible. Tell them you love them as much as possible and be thankful they didn't give you to the fire department when you were crying nonstop that first week of life. If you are buying in to the commercialism, you are doing it wrong. Anna's intent may have been muddled but my intent to refuse to celebrate will be re-posted and re-blogged for years to come.
XO - Confused Bocharski
