Mother’s Day 2021

When and why was Mother’s Day thought up?  We’ve been celebrating Mother’s Day since before 1959 (for his mother and my mother),  Then, when my first daughter was born, Mother’s Day brought new meaning to Larry and me.

I’ve admitted to making mistakes in my life.  I’ve come to realize that one of the greatest mistakes was when I said – at about age 50 – that if I knew “then,” what I know “now,” I would never have children.  What a bone-headed statement that is!  I have learned, now that I’ve grown up, that having children is a joy that “makes the world go round.”  It makes

life worthwhile.  Of course, being a mom is not always easy.  In fact, there are many, many times when being a mom is tough – really tough,  and it is easy to lapse into the “if I knew then…” thinking.  And, also of course, there are those who choose not to have children.  This is their choice.  Or the choice is made for them by nature.

This last couple of weeks, I have had one of those thumps on the head that make one realize just how wonderful it is to have children at hand.  A stint in the hospital ending with the installation of heart stent number three left me with serious questions at the beginning of the stay.  Who is going to take care of the “new” dog?  The tortoise?  The house?  What did this hospital stay mean for my life?

I left home to go to the ER with no change of clothing.  Who would bring from home what I needed to stay in the hospital?  My new appreciation of my children is not because they are available to do something for me.  Rather, I have come to understand that children help in so many ways.  Telephone calls, ZOOM computer gatherings, cards that share their thinking with me, just being there; so many things that make me realize my position in our family and our lives.

I adore my children, including my son-in-law who is married to my #3 daughter and the father of my granddaughters.  I love my grandchildren.  I love the children I know for whom I am not their mother, young or adult.  Children from other mothers who dedicated their lives to the growing of these children.

I wondered when Mother’s Day was first proclaimed as a holiday.  This information came from the web.

Woodrow Wilson proclaims first Mother’s Day holiday.

On May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson issues a presidential proclamation that officially establishes the first national Mother’s Day holiday to celebrate America’s mothers.

The idea for a “Mother’s Day” is credited by some to Julia Ward Howe (1872) and by others to Anna Jarvis (1907), who both suggested a holiday dedicated to a day of peace . Many individual states celebrated Mother’s Day by 1911, but it was not until Wilson lobbied Congress in 1914 that Mother’s Day was officially set on the second Sunday of every May. In his first Mother’s Day proclamation,  Wilson stated that the holiday offered a chance to “[publicly express] our love and reverence for the mothers of our country.”

To learn that President Woodrow Wilson  instituted the celebration of our mothers and mother-figures is wonderful.  I wish all of you who are mothers and those of you who provide mothering to anyone, a happy and blessed Mother’s Day.

Be safe and well.

The Cranky Crone

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