Mother’s Day is coming up. While most of the world is setting up for the commercial part of the holiday, the rest of us are left to explore what Mother’s Day really means to us. I did not grow up celebrating Mother’s Day; in fact, I did not grow up saying “I love you” to my mother.
We grow up in different generations. During my mother’s time, there was no such thing as a day to celebrate mothers. Motherhood was just an expectation and a reality; it wasn't a reason for a party.
As we grew and modernised, we chose to have days to celebrate ourselves and our roles in society. Women’s day, Mother’s day, Father’s day, Teacher's day, Nurse’s day and so on.
We live in a fast-paced world and having such a day is a good reminder to celebrate the people around us and the role they play in our lives. However, just like most holidays, humans have a tendency to get swept up in the celebration.
Thanks to influencers, content creators and public personalities, we are forced to consume content of varying obnoxiousness. From long dozens of stemmed roses, jewellery, cars, designer gifts, we watch as the people on our screens show us just their valuation of motherhood ‘according to their partners’.
I put the last part in quotes because content creators are known for setting up scenes to create exploding content that will garner them views and shower them with admiration.
While I find myself dreaming about some kind of treat or gift for Mother’s Day, more often than not, I stop my husband from purchasing things like flowers around these holidays when the items are clearly overpriced.
I would rather have a bigger bouquet of flowers on a random Thursday for a fraction of the price. With my kids being really small, I do not see the point of celebrating anything. My kind of celebration at this point in my life is anything that will reduce my daily chores.
I personally do not see the big fuss in celebrating a day that society deems is the right time for my motherhood to be celebrated with perfumes, cards and roses.
I would rather live in the reality of my everyday motherhood, where I live a pretty good life as a stay-at-home mum. Living with a husband who does not care about the small things because he is too busy providing for a life that makes every day a little bit easier for me.
