Editorial: On Mother’s Day: Call Your Mom, Practice Empathy
By • May 8, 2024 0 144
Mother’s Day is fast approaching — Sunday, May 12, to be exact. As the inevitable clichés of “Call your mother,” “Send her flowers” and “Take her to brunch” fill the spring air, we’re here to tell you not to brush them off.
It’s never too late to call mom, to send her a bouquet of her favorite flowers or to take her out somewhere nice. All this is especially true if mom and you have had a rough go of things over the years. On Mother’s Day, it’s hard not to wonder “What if?” in terms of reconciling rifts and differences.
You probably also know men and women who are dealing with the loss of their own mothers. Grief never fully goes away. Companies are realizing this, giving people the option to opt out of Mother’s Day promotional emails that arrive in your inbox this time of year.
Mother’s Day is indeed a day to be grateful you are a mother and to honor the mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers in your life. But it’s also a day to practice empathy for women who may have wanted to be a mother, but for whom life didn’t work out exactly as they expected. Others may have tragically lost an infant or an older child.
Mother’s Day is no simpler than any other holiday. Take a moment on May 12 to reflect on and give thanks for your relationship with your mom, or with a mother-like figure in your life. At the same time, be sympathetic and understanding if there are women in your midst grieving torn relationships with their children or the children they never got to have, or the loss of their own moms. They need love and compassion on this day too.
Happy Mother’s Day, Georgetown.
