Usually, we just go along with the original way of writing Mother’s Day, which is to put the apostrophe before the s, where the woman who campaigned for that day, Anna Jarvis, insisted it should go because it was her intention to create the day for one’s own mother. In that case we would say that the day belongs to one specific mother (presumably yours), so with possession involved, obviously we need that apostrophe after mother. We’ll call this choice #1.But over the years, we’ve noticed that some people like to put the apostrophe after the s, making it Mothers’ Day, claiming — and rightfully so — that the day is shared among all mothers collectively, not just one’s own. Therefore all mothers at large claim the day under choice #2.
Yet, if we want to be even more observant, Mothers Day without any apostrophe at all has also caught on and has much to say in its favor.
Mothers without an apostrophe are just plural mothers, like every mother collectively in a group of mothers. And since they don’t own the day, no possession is involved. No possession, no apostrophe. That would be choice #3.
So there we have the three different ways of writing the name of the day that celebrates mothers. And they are all valid and all correct, but we have decided that we’re going with choice #3. That choice does nothing to desecrate or lessen the sanctity, if you will, of one’s own mother, it merely allows us to honor your mother as well as our own, and also to honor all the mothers who chose to bring their little unborn child (or children) into the world and spend the time required to raise them and teach them and show them they love them.
Just thinking about all that mothers do, and have done for us, we’re glad that Anna Jarvis campaigned for the recognition of her own mother (or anyone’s own mother), and by extrapolation, for mothers in general. They don’t need to own the day to share in the honor; and while some of us may never even have known our own mother, others may have known a woman or even women who took over that role in their life and couldn’t have loved them more or treated them better than if they were their own flesh and blood.
Mothers start us off with just their love and the barest of essentials needed to start us down the road to growing up and going down the right track. Mothers are there for us when no one else is. They’re there for us through our troubles, our trials, and our tribulations.
And of course, they are there with us through our happy and joyful times as well. Mothers care about us even when we don’t care about ourselves.
One needs to pass an exam and get a license to make women appear more beautiful, but women do not need to pass an exam to have a child. And if that woman truly becomes a mother, she will always have an inner beauty that no person can add to her outward appearance, no matter how they apply their learned and licensed skills.
It seems that most people who have had a mother share our views. And so we leave you with some of their thoughts for this day that has been designated for all mothers.
“A mother is your first friend, your best friend, your forever friend.” —Unknown “When you are looking at your mother, you are looking at the purest
love you will ever know.” —Charley Benetto “Mother is the heartbeat in the home; and without her, there seems to be no heartthrob.” —Leroy Brownlow
“My Mother: She is beautiful, softened at the edges and tempered with a spine of steel. I want to grow old and be like her. ” —Jodi Picoult
“Mother is the name for God on the lips and in the hearts of little children.” —William Makepeace Thackeray “The influence of a mother in the lives of her children is beyond calculation.” —James E. Faust
“It may be possible to gild pure gold, but who can make his mother more beautiful?” —Mahatma Gandhi
“There is no role in life that is more essential than that of motherhood.” —Elder M. Russell Ballard
“Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall; A mother’s secret hope outlives them all.” —Oliver Wendell Holmes
“Only mothers can think of the future because they give birth to it in their children.” —Maxim Grosky
“My mother was my role model before I even knew what that word was.”—Lisa Leslie
“To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power.” —Maya Angelou
“Motherhood is the biggest gamble in the world. It is the glorious life force. It’s huge and scary – it’s an act of infinite optimism.”—Gilda Radner
“Motherhood is the exquisite inconvenience of being another person’s everything.” —Unknown
May all mothers everywhere enjoy their day!
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