What do mothers really want for Mother’s Day?
We did an unscientific, completely biased survey and asked a random sampling of moms what they wanted for Mother’s Day.
Here’s what they said – not in priority.
1. To not have to pick up dirty socks or clothes scattered around the house.
2. To be able to sit for an hour with a cup of tea and a good book without having to worry about anything.
3. To know that someone else is planning dinner.
4. To know that someone else is cleaning up after dinner.
5. To have one day when the kids don’t fight.
6. To have one day to sleep in.
7. To have one night when I don’t have to get up to get anything for anyone.
8. To know that everyone is safe, sound and healthy.
9. To have everybody together for dinner and not have anyone texting.
10. To walk on the beach alone barefoot.
Instead, most moms will get chocolates, roses and a dinner out. Perhaps, if they’re lucky, they’ll get that and a couple of days where everyone commits to picking up their own clothes. A cynic might say we pay a lot of lip service to how much we value moms, but it’s just that – lip service.
Even the person who started Mother’s Day realized it became all about profit and not so much about poor old Mom.
According to Wikipedia, Anna Jarvis started Mother’s Day in 1908 in the U.S. She held a memorial for her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, in West Virginia. Anna’s tribute to her own mom was to get a day set aside each year to honour mothers, “the person who has done more for you than anyone in the world”. Anna’s mother was a peace activist who cared for wounded soldiers on both sides of the Civil War and created Mother’s Day Work Clubs to address public health issues.
Although Jarvis was successful in founding Mother’s Day, she soon became resentful of the commercialization and was angry that companies would profit from the holiday. By the early 1920s, Jarvis became so embittered by what she saw as misinterpretation and exploitation that she protested and even tried to rescind Mother’s Day.
She crashed a candymakers’ convention in Philadelphia in 1923. Two years later, she protested at a meeting of the American War Mothers, which raised money by selling carnations, the flower associated with Mother’s Day, and was arrested for disturbing the peace
Alas, it did not end well for Jarvis.
So, in honour of Jarvis and her good intentions, please take the top 10 list of things moms want and see how many you can do for your mom this year.
