Before you say "Happy Mother's Day", please think for a moment.
Are you talking to someone you know well, who is actually likely to be happy?
Or are you just tossing it off casually because it seems like the thing to say today, not realizing there are many people who would not necessarily welcome that sentiment?
Here is a partial list of people who are not happy on Mothers Day:
- people who have (or had) horrible relationships with their mothers
- people raised by someone other than their mother (who did not treat them well)
- people who do not know who their birth mother is, and wish they knew
- people who do not know where their mother is and/or whether she is alive
- people whose mother neglected them
- people whose mother abused them physically or sexually
- people grieving the recent death of their mother
- people grieving the death of their mother a long time ago
- people grieving deaths that occurred on/near Mother's Day
- people separated from their mother by great distance who wish they could be together
- people separated from their mother by estrangement
- mothers separated from their children by distance or estrangement
- mothers whose children are in prison or institutional care, who don't get to see them as often as they want
- mothers who do not know where one or more of their children are
- mothers who lost children in custody battles
- mothers whose children died young
- mothers whose children died at any age
- mothers whose children committed suicide
- mothers whose children are seriously ill or near death
- foster mothers who are blocked from keeping their foster children permanently
- women who have experienced miscarriage of a wanted child
- women who gave up children for adoption and wonder where those children are
- women who felt pressured into having abortions they did not want to have
- women with fertility problems longing for children despite repeated failure to conceive
- women in a long/complicated/frustrating adoption process waiting to receive a child
- women past childbearing age who wanted to have children
These people are not happy on Mother's Day.
Wishing them a happy Mothers Day will not make them happy.
Wishing them a happy Mothers Day may cause/add to pain and sadness.
I myself am in three of these categories.