A post-Mother’s Day reflection |14 May 2022
Mother’s Day was observed and celebrated by some members of our local population on both March 27 and May 8 which are the respective dates that it is observed in the United Kingdom and the United States.
Following these, Seychelles NATION spoke to a Seychellois couple who are devoted, loving children to their parents, to learn what Mother’s Day means to them. They offer our readers their analysis of this celebration and an interesting perspective on how they choose to recognise and show their love to their own mothers.
“It is wonderful that we actually have an observance day at least once a year to recognise our mothers and what they have done for us. We think that most mothers have unconditional love for their children and as a result they sacrifice a great deal to raise us.
“Having said that, we do not personally celebrate Mother’s Day and it is not because we don’t love or recognise the sacrifices that our mothers had to make for their children. It is however because we do have great relationships with our mothers.
“We visit our mums regularly every week, we try to help them with things that they need support with, and from time to time we do express our gratitude for being good mothers to us all. In other words, we try to recognise our mums often throughout the year rather than putting special emphasis on one day as specified or stipulated by society.
“Although we do wish our mums a happy mother’s day on the day itself, throughout the year we do our best to make them happy and we prefer to be there for them even on ordinary days, such as when they would otherwise have been home alone.
“Our opinion is that Mother’s Day has become too commercialised and that there is this pressure and expectation on most people to behave in a particular way. For instance, one person might feel that they need to buy more gifts to either look better in the eyes of their mother, in order to compete with their siblings, or to compensate for a lack of effort and commitment – like simply visiting or helping, whichever ways you can show your love to your mother.
“When a person makes Mother’s Day a major event on that day only, it might make the other 364 days in the year where you are not present for your mother stand out even more.
“We would like to stress on the importance of being there for our mothers throughout the year, to show gratitude and love, to give support, to listen to them while they want to talk, to be of company to them, and not simply to spoil them with gifts, although that is nice as well. For us, we think it is all about the feeling that our mothers get from us that they value and not about the gifts that are given as substitutes for our love and devotion.
“On Mother’s Day itself, we take it as a reminder to make time to reflect on our mothers, their love for their children, and everything that they have done and continue to do for us. It is a good opportunity as well to think of how we show our love and support to our mothers in return, and to remind ourselves to continue to do so, even in the smallest ways.”
- Anonymous
Compiled by F.P.
