Roughly this time last week, we were celebrating Father's Day. This day has always seemed to stump me — why do we need one day to celebrate fathers? Same thing with Mother's Day. We should be celebrating parents and guardians every day, not boiling it down to two days every year.
These days erase non-binary parents, single parents, same-sex parents, legal guardians, the list goes on and on. It can also serve as a harsh reminder of a death of a parent or a bitter divorce or parents that didn't and/or don't give a shit about your well being. These days can include horrible flashbacks of parents leaving, abusive episodes, painful funerals. Why do we continue to subject children with this psychological torture, if we could call it that?
What if you're living with foster parents and you don't consider them your parents or your guardians for various and valid reasons? What if your parents only do the bare minimum and you don't want to celebrate how shitty they can be? Why are we forced to awkwardly thank them and lie, the only intention being to appease society?
We shouldn't be celebrating and thanking the people who put roofs over our head, food in our stomachs, hugs and kisses when we want just one day a year. We shouldn't be forcing children to thank parents and guardians for artificial things that they might not be providing. Either we love our parents and guardians or we just put up with them. There shouldn't be a strict societal rule that forces us to thank them. Solution: we either thank them every day for the horrifically tough job of raising children or ignore them just like every other day. Because some parents and guardians can be deadbeats. It's a sad fact of life.
Another thing that is extremely annoying about these holidays is how commercialized they are. Buffalo Wild Wings celebrates "Dads and Grads" between the time college and high school students graduate and Father's Day. Jewelry stores like Zales and Kay have fantastic sales selling Mother's Day themed rings, necklaces, bracelets, etc. Anna Jarvis, the founder of America's Mother's Day, even regretted founding the holiday because of how commercialized it was. Keep in mind: this was in the 1940s. I'm 99 percent sure that the holiday is way more commercialized today than it was then.
There shouldn't be one day where we thank our parents for everything. Why do we ignore the other 364 days of the year? If we really care about familial relationships, we should completely ignore the Mother's and Father's days of the year and focus on our guardians every day. That is, if we like them.
