5 Unusual But Culturally Critical Mother’s Day Gifts
There are approximately two billion mothers in the world today, and over 85 million of them live in the United States.
How friendly is the American culture toward mothers?
According to the National Retail Federation, over $38 billion will be spent on our moms this Mother’s Day on flowers, cards, gifts and special outings. If you haven’t already made a reservation at a favorite restaurant for Sunday, it might be too late.
So, mothers tend to be honored and well-feted on the second Sunday in May every year, but what about across the culture as a whole the other 364 days of the year?
Over the years, politicians have proposed and passed a myriad of policies intended to help mothers and families. These have included the “Family and Medical Leave Act” (FMLA), the Child Tax Credit, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, and various state-sponsored paid family leave programs.
Without question, financial relief and assistance are practical ways to help mothers, but money is nowhere near the ultimate salve.
If men, children, and culture want to truly honor mothers in America, here are five ways to do it:
1. Men: If You’re Married, Stay Married
At the risk of stating the obvious, marriage and motherhood are inextricably linked. Happy and faithful marriages lead to happier mothers. It was Theodore Hesburgh, the longtime president of the University of Notre Dame, who once remarked, “The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.”
With divorce being one of the greatest predictors of poverty, it goes to follow that it’s mothers who are financially harmed the most when the family is split in two.
2. Men: If You’re Cohabitating and Not Married to the Mother of Your Child, Get Married
According to the U.S. Census, nearly three million American men are living with the biological mother of their children but are not married to them. The risks of cohabitation to mothers, especially when children are shared between the couple are real and range from physical to emotional to spiritual.
If a man truly loves the mother of his child, he will do whatever it takes to protect her and maximize her security and stability.
3. Men, Stop Accessing Pornography
While technically a problem that negatively impacts men and women, pornography inflicts far more damage on women and mothers. From establishing unrealistic expectations to objectifying women and violating and distorting God’s sacred gift of sexuality – porn is a scourge on society that harms mothers in countless ways.
4. Elevate and Acknowledge Motherhood as the World’s Most Important Profession
The term “working mother” is redundant. Any woman who is on call seven days a week, 24 hours a day, all the while raising the next generation, is working. While many women may have professional responsibilities outside the home, every mother with children of a certain age is a working mother.
Many people inadvertently and unconsciously degrade or diminish motherhood. A table full of moms who hold paying jobs may be swapping war stories and then turn to the mother who is up to her eyeballs with toddlers. She has war stories too – only they’re from a different type of war. Ask about them.
5. Stop Using Profanity
Studies and personal observation make it clear that the use of profanity is on the rise – and not only in movies and on television. We hear it at the grocery store, park, even social gatherings.
To quote the late Bob Newhart: “Stop it.” Not only is cursing the sign of a poor vocabulary, but it’s making mothers’ jobs a lot more difficult. Children’s ears are being infected, and their minds are being sullied by the use of offensive language.
One of the best gifts culture can give to mothers is to make the world a more gentle, innocent and hospitable place for their children.
