Breakfast in bed or flowers: Mother's Day is something like this or something similar in many households in Germany. But what do mothers really want?
- For Mother's Day there are often flowers, a voucher or chocolates.
- But what do mothers really want?
- Which gifts are really fun?
Gifts for Mother's Day: Please no voucher
Annette Loers does not want a voucher for manicure , not even a homemade batik heart. For Mother's Day, the mother of two children does not need all of these things. The 46-year-old from Stuttgart blogs about life as a single parent - and she thinks very little of Mother's Day. "As a single parent, my wellness program is when I take a shower. Or when I can eat what I want," she says.
Criticism on Mother's Day is nothing new. On the one hand there is the flower industry, which wants to earn a lot of money with the day. Then, of course, the historical background: In National Socialism it was misused as the "day of honor" for the mother, who had many children. And last but not least: Who wants appreciation once a year, and the other 364 want to wear themselves out for work, household, family?
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What do mothers want for Mother's Day?
Attention - for what families and mothers really need . "Don't give me flowers, give me a lobby," says Cornelia Spachtholz from the Association of Working Mothers. Flexible, affordable childcare, basic childcare, fair wages, the abolition of spouse splitting and the introduction of individual taxation - better reconciliation of work and family, Spachtholz gives a few examples of their wishes.
Nowadays it's more about reinterpreting Mother's Day - giving it a fresh coat of paint. "A little more like International Women's Day," says Spachtholz. "I think it's a good and important day," says Anne Schilling, managing director of the mother's recovery center. Only in terms of design is Mother's Day very one-dimensional. He conveys a role model that does not correspond to reality.
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"We have a reality where women have both feet in life," she says. She observes that women are challenged in many places - at work, as a mother, in marriage and as a friend. This often collides with reality - because there is a lack of support . "Women have insane pressure, they feel torn apart," criticizes Schilling. And they are often given the feeling that the mother role is the most important - an outdated image of the mother.
The quite controversial conservative Birgit Kelle sees it differently. "It is always artificially pretended to be outdated gender clichés," she criticizes. The woman who is raising children - that is the reality in Germany. She denounces that there is a gap between people with and people without children. "The quiet performance of mothers is not honored , they get a bouquet of flowers once a year." However, the author of the book "Gendergaga" relies more on a traditional family picture. She does not celebrate Mother's Day with her children either, but she is nevertheless happy about home-made things.
The single parent and blogger Loers, on the other hand, is annoyed - by inappropriate handicrafts from school and the conservative focus of the day . "Mothers get breakfast on Mother's Day and on Father's Day the men go upstairs," she says. That cemented role clichés. "I hope that caring for other people will receive the same recognition as gainful employment," she tweeted again this year - under #Muttertag request.
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