Thoughts on Mother's Day

Today is Mother’s Day, a day that the culture devotes to women who are mothers.  Frankly, I have mixed feelings about a day celebrating motherhood.

On the one hand, mothers go through a tremendous amount to deliver and raise a child. There are decades of hard work and sacrifice, not to mention the countless amount of time and money spent.  Moms deserve praise and admiration. 

However, what about those women who are not mothers? There are a multitude of reasons why women have not conceived a child.  Some have desperately wanted to, but were infertile.   A lot of infertile women undergo painful procedures and ingest risky medications, but to no avail.   A holiday that celebrates mothers could feel like a cruel slap in the face to them.

Then there are women who wanted to have children but were never in the right life circumstances.  Mother’s Day can be hard as well.  Many women have had abortions, miscarriages, stillborn babies, or a child who died. 

There are stepmoms, many of whom get a lot of flak and very little credit. And then there are women who simply didn’t want to have a child.

What concerns me about Mother’s Day is that some women are honored and others are not. The holiday creates a separation among women.  Even without Mother’s Day, women can sometimes have contentious relationships with each other. 

So my thoughts on Mother’s Day are this:  If you are a mom, kudos to you because this is incredibly hard work and you deserve praise. 

If you are not a mother,  but have been a part of children’s lives, perhaps as an aunt or a teacher, you deserve praise as well. And if you have not wanted to have children, your life is valuable just the same, because a woman's worth should not be measured by whether or not she has children.

And if you have lost your mom, I offer you condolences because Mother’s Day can be hard for many people whose beloved moms are no longer here.