I love the cartoons about forced motherhood, kids hugging stressed out moms and making breakfast for them. I hate the stereotypes, sexism, and... misleading (for lack of a better word) in some of the cartoons.
I didn't like:
* the sappy, Hallmark card of platitudes showing three sets of (white) hands, talking about mothers as nurturers, caring, loving. Not all mothers are like that, and this was illustrated well in another cartoon in the read where it acknowledged some mothers are (Black) "Baltimore mothers," who are tough as nails. That's a more realistic representation of mothers everywhere.
* the military mom getting a Mother's Day package from her kids. This one wouldn't have bothered me if it weren't for the fact that our military in Iran aren't getting their care packages from home these days.
* the sexist stereotypes of women having to go to the doctor for eating their husbands' cooking, or the mother nagging her adult son to clean up after himself after he brought her flowers, or the father telling his kid that making his bed is a great gift for his mom.
Mostly I'm just bitter that a holiday that arose after the Civil War, to promote peace so "mothers wouldn't ever have to suffer their sons being lost to war again" was turned into a sentimental slop of a day that gives platitudes to mothers while we also culturally deny (or seek to deny) them access to safe and legal reproductive healthcare, voting rights, and interstate travel.
https://womenshistory.si.edu/blog/history-mothers-day-global-peace-greeting-cards
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