A florist prepares a flower bouquet for a customer on March 1, 2024, at Asrai Garden in Chicago. (Vincent Alban/Chicago Tribune)
By The Editorial Board | Chicago Tribune
Mothers spend their days making decisions. Small ones, constant ones, invisible ones. What everyone eats. What everyone wears. Where everyone needs to be, and when. They carry it all in their heads, quietly keeping the machinery of family life running.
Knowing that, take note: She does not want to plan her own Mother’s Day.
To hear some people tell it, motherhood is mostly a story of exhaustion and sacrifice. There’s truth in that. But reducing it only to hardship misses something essential. It’s also deeply meaningful. Both things can be true, often at the same time.
Which is exactly why the work mothers do deserves recognition.
Our modern Mother’s Day is meant to honor the way mothers keep families running. The day itself may be arbitrary, but the sentiment behind it is not. In fact, the holiday didn’t start as a day for brunch reservations or last-minute gifts. Early efforts to establish Mother’s Day were rooted in women’s effort to build community, tend to the sick, promote public health and even advocate for peace in times of war. It was meant to recognize care work, not market it back to mothers. That distinction has gotten a bit lost. What was once about recognizing care has, in many cases, become another obligation.
Ask most mothers and they’d tell you to ditch the trappings and trimmings. They just want to know you appreciate them. And perhaps to enjoy a few minutes to themselves.
Editorial continues here.