Another Mother's Day has come and gone; another fancy brunch has been successfully consumed, another stack of Hallmark cards has been read, and another bouquet of flowers is sitting around the house. Let's be honest, none of those things really matter to us all that much, though. There will be other occasions for brunch soon, there will plenty of times to buy cards later on and those flowers will go unnoticed and die within a few days, and that's okay with us. But there's one thing that always goes away quicker than all of those things after Mother's Day passes, and that's mom's pedestal that she gets to stand up on for this one day out of every year.
Today, mom goes back to doing what she does every day. And why shouldn't she, right? Everyone else has to get back into their routine after Mother's Day so she ought to, too. But I think that the whole hoopla around Mother's Day takes away from the fact that a mom really deserves appreciation 365 days out of the year. After she gets one whole day devoted to her, she's good to go and I don't really need to show any more appreciation until the next Mother's Day rolls around. But that's just so unfair. Think about it; the biggest holidays (the ones we get days off of school and work for) celebrate much more trivial things, things that really don't deserve more celebration than our own moms.
Take New Year's Eve, for instance—everyone goes balls-to-the-wall insane trying to make the best parties and the craziest plans. But a new year is just the changing of one calendar to the next. A new year will come and go no matter what. That's not how our moms work. Our moms are the only ones that we literally owe our lives to. And on top of that, they shape us into who we become. Everyone with a mom who was there to raise and support them owes their personalities, successes, and overall life achievements to their moms. A new year didn't teach me to give up my seat to a lady. A new year doesn't make dinner for me every night when I'm home. A new year didn't hold my hand through my first day on the job, my first break-up, my first day of school or my first steps. And yet, we celebrate a new year like it's the end of the world, whereas our moms only get one day of brunch and cards.
This is the case with most holidays—St. Patrick's Day and Cinco de Mayo are humongous holidays that don't even have origins in this country. Thanksgiving is a huge undertaking that celebrates the invasion of Pilgrims onto American soil. Halloween, which is given a full season of celebration, started out as a day for dead people. We go crazy for this stuff. Yet our moms, the ones who are there for us in the thick and thin, are given a day that I honestly forgot about until just a week ago.
I don't think Mother's Day should be made any bigger a deal than it already is, though, when it comes down to it, it really is just a random day assigned a random meaning. I think the problem isn't the day itself, it's what happens afterward. In reality, every day should be Mother's Day. I mean, if Halloween can get a full month of October, why can't our moms get every day of the year? Why should there only be one day when I insist that my mom relax and take a break? The thing is, moms do so much for us and expect absolutely nothing in return. The amount of time they spend helping us with everything can't be measured in dollars or anything really physical—but if you're a successful person who's happy with your life, there's a good chance you have your mom to thank for that. And I think that's worth celebrating more than just one Sunday in May.
Mother's Day doesn't need to be a bigger deal—it needs to be less. Without Mother's Day, we have no excuse to save our expression of appreciation for just one day out of the year. Without designating one specific day as a holiday for our moms, every day can be Mother's Day, and rightfully so.
