Not all of our mothers were wonderful.

[athena]

32. I was going to hit recommend on this, until I got to the part

where you write:

Nonetheless, Happy Mother's Day to all.

And to those women who are not mothers, please don't feel bad or sorry for yourself. I have no grandchildren, and I've learned to ignore grandparent/grandchildren related things. It's okay just to be a human being by yourself. Really.

This is insulting. It ignores that many women are non-mothers by choice. It makes a generalization that women who didn't procreate all feel bad or sorry for ourselves and need to be told not to. It propagates the sexist idea that all women are here to bear children and raise them, and that any woman who didn't do so must be fundamentally unfulfilled and horribly depressed about it. Because how can a woman be fulfilled if she didn't bear children, eh? Because that's all a woman is supposed to be able to do. A woman is supposed to pop out children and spend the rest of her life cleaning up after them, while leaving all other endeavors to men. We've been brainwashed to believe that the most boring, messy, and arduous chores are fulfilling, so that we don't compete with men for the truly enjoyable stuff -- like math, science, philosophy, engineering, architecture, painting, sculpture, literature, history, economics, and politics. Oh, that's all boring. Don't worry your pretty little head over it. Let the men take care of all that. You just go back in the house and change some diapers. That's what's truly enjoyable.

Some of us think it's a horrible idea to have children. Some of us never wanted to be mothers. Some of us believe it's irresponsible to overpopulate the world. Some of us feel strongly that only those who truly love children should have them, and that too many people have children not because they truly want them but because all their friends had them. Some of us feel insulted when others assume we must be mothers because we are women of a certain age.

Enjoy your mother's day, but don't wish me a happy mother's day, and don't presume to tell me not to be upset about not being a mother.