This Sunday, May 11, is a day to celebrate moms nationwide and in several other parts of the world. First and foremost, don’t forget the day and its importance! For those with mothers still living, this holiday offers opportunities to share heartfelt thoughts and feelings that hopefully extend beyond merely wishing them a Happy Mother’s Day.
Some tips for putting these thoughts into words include being specific when mentioning a particular memory or quality you appreciate about her, thanking her for specific things she has done for you, using language that shows your genuine love and appreciation, acknowledging the impact she has had on your life, and tailoring the message to your unique relationship with your mother.
In a Mother’s Day 2019 article, Time Magazine reporter Olivia B. Waxman asserted that military moms were the change agents that made Mother’s Day what it is today. When the United States joined World War I in 1917, the war propaganda machine revved up with a burst of patriotism that came with a renewed appreciation for mothers. Women were hailed for both raising the soldiers who were on the front lines and for the work they were doing at home, such as raising money for the Red Cross. Mother’s Day was a way to thank these women for their service and for the soldiers in battle to reconnect and reaffirm their relationships with their mothers.
“I wish that every officer and soldier of the American Expeditionary Forces would write a letter home on Mother’s Day,” Gen. John J. Pershing is quoted as saying on in the May 8, 1918, New York Times. “This is a little thing for each one to do, but these letters will carry back our courage and our affection to the patriotic women whose love and prayers inspire us and cheer us on to victory.”
The war ended in 1918, but to make sure that veterans would keep up the tradition of reaching out to their mothers after the war, Assistant Secretary of the Navy and future President Franklin Delano Roosevelt sent a reminder about Mother’s Day via a May 9, 1919, telegram to the men of the Navy: “I trust that no one who has a mother still living will neglect to write or, if possible, visit her on this occasion period. No sacrifices during the war have been more severe or borne with more bravery and cheerfulness than the sacrifices of the mothers of America.”
By Mother’s Day 1935, when he was in the White House, Roosevelt said that Mother’s Day had “assumed a deep and growing significance,” so much so that a presidential proclamation telling people to write their mothers on Mother’s Day would be “unnecessary,” as “I prefer to think that the tributes which will be paid to mothers will come simply and spontaneously from our hearts.”
By the time World War II arrived, there were there more mothers than ever before in U.S. history and more U.S. sons away from home on Mother’s Day, thus helping to entrench the holiday into the American calendar forever.
According to Hallmark, today some 115 million cards are exchanged annually for Mother’s Day, making it the third most popular holiday for sending greeting cards in the U.S. after Christmas and Valentine’s Day.
