In the UK (and a few other places) it’s “Mothering Sunday”, the day you honour the church where you were baptised, or your mother church.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothering_Sunday

Yes, it pre-dates the gift card (and gift) industry. I seem to recall being told it was to allow servants to go home to see their mothers. See how vaguely I framed that.

Why do they do this? Why not just have a fixed date for these things? Is it so people can use the weekend to celebrate?

Sorry, but seeing your comment being called dead by HN was... amusing.

(I personally think it's okay to be amused, even if it's thanks to dead people. I don't think any mother would really mind too much.)

Apparently, according to wikipedia, we have a "mother's day" in the first sunday in may. I've seen nothing in the news about it and wasn't aware of its existence.

8 March was an entirely different animal...

I feel some editorializing going on.

Here[0] is a list of many holidays that are ignored more than international women’s day.

Happy International Day of Plant Health to you!

0: https://www.un.org/en/observances/list-days-weeks

November 19 is international men's day. How many times have you gotten flowers on that day? Or Uber drivers wishing you a happy men's day?

International men's day isn't a thing in the US either, so that's not surprising. Contrast to Mother's/Father's Day, which are.

// My partner frequently brags

March 8th is for the partners, mother's day is for the wives :)

Just kidding but couldn't resist.

Flowers for women's day is another ultimately weird tradition in many countries. Weird because the point of women's day is equality and not to be treated like our little special ladies. I always half jokingly said a more suitable gift would be a mini wrench or a screwdriver.

Like May 1st which is snubbed in favor of (non-organized?) Labor Day, and, well, the metric system which has somehow still not been adopted in the US...

I wouldn’t say that. I don’t believe a men’s day even exists.

Every parent in Asia would despise their son if they were gay. That does not make them bad parents.

Bad advice when you don't know the situation. It's never a child's job to fix an abusive parent.

> the first step to letting it sink in for her that you actually care about her.

You clearly didn't read properly. It's the mom the one who doesn't care about her child. Calling her isn't going to change anything.

My mom is fine, but my grandmother has said exceedingly racist things to my wife and homophobic to my sister. I haven't talked to her in years and I suspect I will not for the rest of her life.

People act like I am a douche for this, but at this point I really see three options here. A) I roll my eyes and let her spew her stupid racist bullshit and move on, B) I push back, start an argument, and really upset my mother (whom I do like), or C) drop contact with her. C seems like the least-bad option.

Kids owe their parents nothing. Not a single person on this planet asked to be born. If a parent (or grandparent) does something bad, the onus is not on the child to make things "right".

People act like you have to love your family no matter what, but I think that's pretty naive. If literally anyone I didn't share DNA with said something racist about my wife then no one would give me shit for not talking to them, but suddenly because I'm related to them I just have to let this bullshit slide? Fuck that bullshit.

I contemplating writing a reply suggesting maybe a text or email instead, but I don't know enough about OP's situation so I don't think it's appropriate to give any advice.

Hard disagree.

Maybe there is a time for difficult outreach, but recommending someone to celebrate a person (and one of the most significant people in their life) whose primary emotion is disgust in response to unchosen personal attributes is remarkably insensitive. No need to salt those wounds.

Let's hope things get better for anyone in this circumstance, but IMO it is the parent's job to make an attempt.

--

Nobody wants to or tries to be this kind of person, so here is my shout out today to the moms who DID find a way to work through the challenge of accepting a child whose sexuality, spirituality, politics, etc. are different than they hoped for.

I don't mean to be a douche, but that's an exceedingly ignorant and short-sighted statement. A child doesn't owe their parents anything. If your parent is upset about something about you that you cannot change, then that parent can rightfully go fuck themselves.

Kids don't owe their parents anything.

... why?

Lol. Call her and put on a heavy lisp