Billions of dollars are spent on gifts for Mother’s Day each year but despite thiscelebration of motherhood, hundreds of thousands of women worldwide die during pregnancy and childbirth.
Did you know?
• One maternal death every 90 seconds.
• 15% of all pregnancies result in complications during labor and delivery and sometimes are fatal.
• Pregnancy is the biggest killer of girls ages 15-19.
• For every woman who dies in childbirth, 20 more suffer from debilitating complications.
• We have the knowledge to prevent 90% of all maternal deaths.
Leveraging the power of social media, a group of 12 influential social media moms, including our own Julie Cole, got together to figure out how to make a difference. After a brainstorming session, Moms4Moms was born and the question was asked; what if 1% of that $14.6 billion could be given to this cause?
Consider helping by making a micro-donation of as little as $5 or donate an old cell-phone through the group Hope Phones. All funds raised will be given toEvery Mother Counts, an organization Christy Turlington started after her own home birth went awry. The organization works with maternal deaths and supports moms in several countries.
I’m currently writing an article for Mother’s Day about mamas who don’t have their own mothers around. It’s fascinating to me that people can raise children when their own moms are not retired, living locally, emotionally involved or alive. So, you have that happy read to look forward to. In the meantime it got me thinking about another valuable player in the extended family – the childless aunt.
I had a childless aunt who we tragically lost to breast cancer a dozen years ago when she was only 46-years-old. For the time that we did have her, she was a committed babysitter, sleepover participator, baseball and hockey game attendee, dance recital enthusiast and crazy eights player. She set out to make each and every one of her 16 nieces and nephews feel tremendously special and did a decent job of it.
My children are fortunate to have a collection of seriously invested and interested aunts and uncles. But there is a unique relationship they have with my childless sister, affectionately known to all as “Mare”.
A couple of weeks ago, my Number One Son announced that Monday was his favourite day of the week. It made no sense to me – Monday is the first day back at school and on Monday evenings he attends a two-hour reading group. Not exactly a nine-year-old boy’s idea of fun since reading group is a far cry from hockey games or Pokemon battles. He reminded me that on Mondays my sister, Mare, picks him up from reading group and takes him for a burger before returning him home.
During their time together, my boy gets to tap into Mare’s knowledge and experience, which is wide and varied. I’m not sure why or how, but Mare is fluent in the language of “nine-year-old boy” and can speak in length and detail about Star Wars, sharks, retro comic books, cartoons, etc. Clearly, it just doesn’t get much better than that!
When we are all at the cottage, I’m fairly occupied keeping the place tidy, fixing lunch and settling babies for naps. While I’m doing those little tasks, Mare is swimming with the kids, setting up treasure hunts or collecting bugs with them. My kiddos think that my older sister is a teenager.
When we become mamas, we suddenly recognize and value our relationships in different ways. In preparing the Mother’s Day article it became quite clear to me that those of you who are doing this mama gig without a mother OR a childless sister are pretty impressive. Kudos to you – I don’t know how you do it.
I’ve never been a big fan of the holidays that seem to have been created by greeting card companies. That all changed when I became a momma and realized I better cash in on the opportunity to have one day a year honouring me. What I like about this day is that I feel entitled to a rest, even if it doesn’t actually happen. Knowing I can pull Mother’s Day rank is powerful. Today my family managed to only once hear: “hey! whose day is this anyways??”
I always joke that the night before Mother’s Day, I put the recycling box under my bed. My crafts then won’t have too far to travel after presentation with my breakfast in bed (read: cold tea and soggy cereal). With each child averaging three crafts per Mother’s Day, I end up with a fair bit of recycling. A friend suggested that craft etiquette is to let the stuff hang around for a week or so before hitting the blue bin, so I have taken that under advisement.
After wrapping up the breakfast in bed festivities, I loaded kiddos on bikes, scooters, and double stroller and set off for the park (the far-away park). Along the way I was greeted by shouts of “I’m sure one day you will have a very restful Mother’s Day!” I would give a friendly wave and carry on. When I arrived at the park, I met a Dad there with his daughter. He asked “which of these children are not yours?” I paused….such a strange way of asking the question. Most would say “are they all yours?” I responded “uh, none….none are not mine” (ask a strange question, get a strange response). He replied “I was afraid you were going to say that”.
Afraid? Afraid of what? I wondered if I should be offended, but quickly forgave him when I noticed his daughter had a Mabel’s Label on her soccer ball (yeah, I recover easily).
Mother’s Day is now done and dusted for another year. Regardless of what ends up in the recycling, the looks on those little faces as they present their finger paintings and cheezy poems is priceless. I loved every sip of that weak cold tea. And while my five little people may scare Dads in the park, I know I have nothing to be “afraid” of at all.
The Mabelhood is the sum of all blogs, combining posts from Mabel Labels' bloggers Julie Cole, Caitlin Madden and a cast of guest bloggers. The Mabelhood documents the daily dramas of a group of people raising families and a label making business, plus everything else in-between.
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