A video has been circulating Facebook about an advertisement for Mother's Day. It is a really adorable tribute to all of the fantastic things that our mothers do for us. I won't lie, on a very inherently emotional level, I kind of love this video. When the people started tearing up about how much they love their moms, I too got a little weepy. My favorite is the woman, who just goes "sorry, my mom is just the best".
On one hand, I think that it does a really wonderful job pointing out the amount of work that mothers do that they are not paid for. In some ways, I think that that it really is a great support for the argument that maybe mothers should get paid. They do more work than a typical COO might do!
On the other hand, I do think it has a few flaws. Most importantly, in some ways it supports the concept that all women should do is be mothers. It seems to state that all mothers are the ones that stay at home to take care of the children, as opposed to it being an equal weight between the two parents.
If you haven't seen it already, I do recommend checking it out: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/14/mom-worlds-toughest-job_n_5148075.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063
Your final point you mention is the only thing that really rubs me the wrong way with mother's day. Although mother's day does celebrate mothers and all that they do in the family sphere, what does it say about women who choose not to be, or more so, who simply cannot be mothers due to economic, medical, physical, etc. reasons? If anything, I think we do need to have a "women's day" to celebrate women who work in the home, work outside the home, have children, have pets, etc. etc.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it may encourage more praise towards women who chose to be mothers in the conventional sense, but instead of taking away that day (not that thats necessarily being suggested) we should work on how we can expand the definition of a mother, or find other ways to appreciate other professions.
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