Here’s one of the coolest ways of showing your mom (or sisters, relatives, and friends who are mommies for that matter) your appreciation on Mother’s Day. Make her The Mother of the Year for a day! MomsRising.org at cnnbcvideo has set up this cool, to-be-customized video clip. Brush shoulders with the rich and famous. Get your own fan club and a book contract. Have George Clooney ask you for an autograph. Get a “big thank you for an often thankless job” from US President Barack Obama himself!

You can send the video to several mommies at the same time. I’ve just sent off my 3^rd batch of Mother of the Year Awards video. And because I felt like it, I also sent one to myself.

On a more somber note, this is the first year that I won’t have a mom to call on Mother’s Day. We lost her last August. I miss her and I wish I can send her this video.

It is really a strange feeling. I am a mommy now myself but it seems no matter how old I get and how many children I have, I still need your own mommy. Perhaps for always.

Happy Mother’s Day to all moms out there.

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?

For many mothers, Mother’s Day is a day to be endured and survived, not celebrated.  I learned this on Mother’s Day 2006.  Our first born son had been stillborn and we’d buried him less than a month before.  I remember going to church that day and noticing that a baby baptism ceremony had been planned for that day.  I actually had to leave the service because I just wasn’t able to handle it.

Mother’s Day can be a difficult day for moms.  I think of the older mother who buried her child and is helping to raise her grandchildren.  I am reminded of my step mother, who loved and raised us after our mother’s untimely death.  She never made a distinction between her biological children and her step-children.  That’s a mom alright!

I also think of the many mothers with children in the military.  Some of these mothers will spend their day worrying about their children.  Perhaps some have gotten the call that no parent ever wants to get: they have been told that their child has made the ultimate sacrifice and given their life in service to their country.

For many years, I was a single mother of young children.  Being alone on Mother’s Day was always depressing for me.  One year, my friend from college called and invited me to spend the day with her family.  Every year after that, my children and I would spend the day with her family.  I remember those holiday celebrations with great fondness.

As you are planning your Mother’s Day activities this year,  remember the “forgotten” mothers.   Whether you send a card, give flowers, or thank them for their sacrifice, your efforts will be appreciated.

Babies Online would like to wish you all a very happy and wonderful Mother’s Day.

Please feel free to share any of your special moments, surprises, or experiences from your special day.

Michelle Duggar is expecting her 18^th child.

You may have heard of the Duggar family before: they live in Arkansas and have done several specials for the Discovery Channel on their family. Jim Bob Duggar was a car salesman, a politician and a realtor. Michelle is a full time mother and currently homeschools all of the children who range in age from 20 years to 9 months old. There are 10 boys and 7 girls. There are also two sets of twins. Baby number 18 will join the family around New Year?s Day.

All of the children have names beginning with the letter J. Josh is 20; Jana, 18; John-David, 18; Jill, 16; jessa, 15; Jinger, 14; Joseph, 13; Josiah, 11; Joy-Anna, 10; Jeremiah, 9; Jedidiah, 9; Jason, 7; James, 6; Justin, 5; Jackson, 3; Johannah, 2; and Jennifer is 9 months old.

Currently, the family lives in a 7000 square foot home they built themselves, which took them over 39,000 hours to complete. Michelle says that she does over 200 loads of laundry per month and that it costs slightly under $2000 per month to feed her growing brood. She also estimates that she?s been pregnant around 135 months?more than 11 years– of her 41 years of life.

Mrs. Duggar relays that she is currently 6 weeks along in her pregnancy and that she and her husband have said that they will keep having children as long as God wills it for their lives.

If Mother’s Day rolls around and you’re pregnant – but you don’t have any other children yet – you’ll probably still feel entitled to celebrate. After all, you’re growing a baby inside you, and if that doesn’t make you eligible to get some recognition on Mother’s Day then I’m not sure what does. Celebrating your very first Mother’s Day is a really special thing, even if your baby hasn’t been born yet.

Of course you realize that your unborn baby can’t really sign a card or send you flowers, so naturally you may expect for your husband to get you a little something on behalf of your baby. You might await the day with great anticipation. It’s your first official Mother’s Day, right?

Here is the thing: Some husbands just don’t make the connection. The baby isn’t born yet, so they may still be in the mode of figuring out what to get their own moms instead of devising some clever way to help you celebrate effectively. In other words, if you want to get the reverence you deserve on this special day, you’re going to have to drop a few hints. Try some of these:

“I’m so excited about celebrating my very first Mother’s Day!”

“If you’re wondering what I might like for Mother’s Day, how about a pedicure for my swollen feet?”

Or, my personal favorite:

“I’m going to celebrate Mother’s Day this year. Buy me stuff.”

Okay, okay, so you may not want to be so blatant, and plenty of women don’t really want anything fancy and would just appreciate acknowledgment. Your first Mother’s Day should be special, and if you have the feeling that your husband may not easily make the connection himself then you should let him know.

Remember, pregnant ladies: You are a mommy now.