Mother’s Day Is So Much More Than This by River Kuo, age 11

NEW YORK, NY– Mother’s Day is a day where you’re supposed to treat your mom like a queen and do stuff for her. Make your mom breakfast, give her some flowers, make her a card… right? Well, no. 

Mother’s Day started in 1908, founded by Anna Jarvis. Later on, she tried to abolish it. This is because Mother’s Day was just becoming another way to give money to big companies and give your mom something to be forgotten a few days later. And while it’s okay to give flowers and cards and make your mom breakfast in bed, Mother’s Day is something so much more than that. It’s a day to acknowledge how much moms really do for you, to actually show you really respect them. It’s not just another event that comes up every year where you have to do something for your mom as a nice gesture that you care about them. You might think, “Whatever, if it’s done I can go back to being my normal self (respect– pffft what’s that? Sure my mom does a lot for me but I mean isn’t it enough to give her a card?).” Well, listen up.  Because if you thought moms were busy before, now it gets worse for most moms, because COVID has made them busier than ever. And it’s time we actually think about what being a mother is really about, and what Mother’s Day is about.

Michelle is a mom of two in New York whose average weekday consists of feeding her family breakfast, getting lunch ready, doing laundry, cleaning up the house, checking emails, monitoring her kids, checking how they’re doing in school, taking them to the park, cooking dinner, calling her mom, and finally putting them to bed. After they go to bed, if Michelle isn’t too tired, she’ll work on her artwork.“Sometimes I stay up really late because that’s the only time I get to work on my stuff.” She is a freelance artist, but doesn’t get much time these days to work on her art. “Usually I’m home all the time with them, so it’s very hard to get any time for myself.”

As if that isn’t enough stuff in one day, Michelle has more she has to worry about.“ I feel like I have to keep everyone’s spirits up and worry about everyone’s health all the time.”

And it’s not just Michelle. A lot of moms are stuck in the house, especially during COVID, acting as a caregiver or money maker while not getting a lot of alone time. Not only that, but recently, Urban Sitter made a poll that nearly 500 parents participated in. According to the poll, 53% of parents say that mothers are the primary caregivers of the house. Although studies do show that dads have been spending more time with their kids these days,  less than ⅓ of the parents on the survey said that caring for their kids is split evenly among both parents.  This takes a toll on a lot of moms, like Michelle. “ I feel like it’s a mom’s job to worry about your family’s health more than yours,” she says.

So, what can we do for the mothers this Mother’s Day? Many mothers are sacrificing a lot of their independence and a lot of the time in their lives taking care of us. I want readers to ask themselves what they can do for their mothers, what they can actually do. Not just on mothers day, but every day. Moms do so much for us, and Mother’s Day isn’t just about cards and flowers. It’s about the beauty and struggle of being a mother, and how we can respect everything they’ve done for us.