Is celebrating Mother’s Day politically (in)correct?
This is going to be the biggest one for me yet. My two six-year olds are into it, heart and soul this year. I am forbidden to open a certain closet and a certain set of drawers. I am constantly locked out of their bedrooms. I am not allowed to enter their classroom at preschool. Something’s definitely brewing. All because of Mother’s Day is going to be here in a couple of days and everything has to be a “surprise.”
Come Saturday, they are going to a “secret meeting” at their Dad’s office. The company has organized a “pre-Mother’s Day” activity for male employees and their offspring. To make sure that Mom gets something come Sunday. It was supposed to be a big secret and I am pretending not to know about it. It is great to be a Mommy at this time of the year.
Which is why I was shocked about what a friend who was visiting from the UK last weekend had to tell me. It seems that some schools in the UK are abstaining from all this Mother’s Day hype – in consideration for those kids who are motherless. I was speechless.
This reminded me of one episode of Desperate Housewives (season 1) wherein Lynnette had an argument with another school mom who believed it was not politically correct to kill the big bad wolf in the Little Red Riding Hood school play. I found that very funny then.
It also reminded me of a news item last December wherein some schools in Austria had forbidden the traditional annual visit of St. Nicholas (European version of Santa Claus) because school psychologists claim this event has such a traumatic effect on kids who felt they were “more naughty than nice.”
These things can be amusing when I see them on TV or read them on print but when I think more profoundly, they can actually be worrying. I suppose forgetting about Mother’s Day (at least in school) is a very politically correct way of doing things, to spare the feelings of the few, to avoid highlighting other people’s discrepancies. But aren’t we carrying this “political correctness” a bit too far?
I can imagine it can be confusing, even painful for kids who don’t have moms. But does it justify denying other kids the joy of doing something for their moms? Maybe I am a bit selfish. Maybe because I am a mom, I am enjoying all this hype about Mother’s Day. But I can see that my kids are enjoying it too. Couldn’t we find a middle ground somewhere?
So what do you think? Should schools completely ignore Mother’s Day? Should we consider celebrating Mother’s Day politically incorrect?
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Dawn says...
You know what?I lost my dad at 12. Father’s Day was never easy for me, or my mom, but we got through it. 2 points here:
1. How are kids going to learn how to survive hardship if we take away every oportunity. and
2. Losing a parent sucks. I’ts not really made all that much better–or worse–by having others around you celebrate a holiday or not.
I’m suspecting the people who made the rules or say these things have never actually lost a parent, or they would realize this.
Happy Mother’s Day, btw. enjoy it.
brit says...
we wouldn’t have any holidays to celebrate if it was politically incorrect to celebrate any that left anyone out. Hope you had a good mothers day… what was your surprise?
Melissa H says...
I guess what gives me pause about this decision is that it forgets about the people who step up to the plate when a parent is gone. Uncles and grandfathers often take up the slack when a father is missing from the picture. Aunts and Grandmothers do the same when a mother is not there. Sometimes it is a dear friend of the remaining parent. Often there is a step-parent in the picture. I would say though that there is rarely a time when there is not someone who a child could say thank you to of the appropriate gender for Mother’s or Father’s Day. And that is what the holiday is supposed to be about Honoring the people who have shaped your life. Traditionally that would be Mom or Dad but sometimes it is someone who has done some of the same things that Mom or Dad would do….. And I would say that is as it should be!!