The signs and displays are in the store windows.
The ads are on television.
On Facebook last night: someone posted a photo of a Dolce & Gabbana watch -- a hint for Mother's Day, she said. (!)
On a scrapbooking blog I read this morning: Headline: "Moms deserve the best!" Opening line: "It's never too early to start preparing gifts for Holidays or Special Occasions, and I'm sure one of the more important Holidays for many of us must be Mother's Day." Ummm, sure.
Of course I believe that MY mother deserves the best. : )
But it is hard to focus solely on honouring my own mother, as many suggest that those of us who are childless-not-by-choice should do -- first of all, because she's 1,000 miles away, and second, because all the other moms around me will soon begin talking about their plans and what their families are doing for them. And, of course, the hype around Mother's Day and motherhood really lasts all year long, when you live in a highly pronatalist society (as we do).
I actually recall the hype starting earlier in previous years (maybe a year when Easter fell earlier in the year? -- we need to get that over with first…), so I guess I'm lucky. (I guess??)
At least I don't have to attend a baptism this year. :p
I was reading through some of my older posts about Mother's Day and found one that mentioned a radio commercial for a jeweler: "What's the one thing your wife and mother have in common? Children, of course." Whoa.
ReplyDeleteI've never liked the "celebrate your own mother" cant, either. It's pretty wishy-washy. My mom is 250 miles away and I have rarely seen her on Mother's Day, because D.'s family and his grandma in particular make such a huge deal of the day. I have wondered how my MIL feels about that; her parents were killed when a train hit their car, soon after D. was born. It must be a painful day for her too.
Last year Mother's Day fell just two weeks after my second ectopic pregnancy loss. A sweet, cutesy commercial came on TV and it made me cry -- but then at the end of the commercial Captain Phil from Deadliest Catch appeared and said, "Happy (effin) Mother's Day". And for some reason, that moment helped me get through.
ReplyDeleteThis year I am planning to stay VERY busy on Mother's Day, and hopefully avoid its existence as much as possible. Good luck to us all.
If it weren't for my wedding anniversary right in the middle of the month, I'd like to skip over the month of May entirely.
ReplyDeleteYikes.
ReplyDeleteSo glad I don't watch much regular TV and rely mostly on Netfl.ix and H.ulu. When I have watched tv with commercials, there's usually SOMETHING that makes me cringe.
And, of course, I want the best for MY mom, but I think this whole holiday is pretty stupid.
Much sympathy - wish they could somehow acknowledge those of us who would love to be mothers but can't.
ReplyDeleteWishing you good things this month. You deserve to be honored the same way as every other mother.
ReplyDeleteAnd not for nothing, I tend to really think of this as just a hallmark holiday. It's a big conspiracy to sell cards, candy and flowers.
We skip church entirely on MD & FD. The first year we attended our church, the pastor assured me that they gave flowers to ALL women, regardless of their "mother status," & that he wouldn't be preaching about MD.
ReplyDeleteWell, i got thru that day, ok, but found that the ALL women regardless of status just didn't do it. The following year he DID preach about motherhood, & on FD similar & my DH felt hurt & slighted. We've decided since then the only thing to do is go off by ourselves for a picnic or something.
We find both of those days to be hard.
I just found your blog. I am so sorry for your losses.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Mother's day issue, I took my mom out for lunch already. So I could avoid going out on Mother's Day.
I have one child, miscarried one and then 12 years of infertilty with no known cause. I feel your pain about the baptism, I have a niece and nephew that were born days away from my delivery date of the baby that died. Every birthday I have to see what might of been and miss by baby girl.
ReplyDelete