Please help me clarify my thoughts around this Mother's Day Assembly...

The lyrics fill me with rage! It is not the image I have of myself as a person and it is not an image I wish anyone to have of me.

These are obnoxious lyrics - Mum is either stressed out and shouty or cooking and cleaning.

this is written by someone who didn't actually like their Mum or enjoy being a Mum.

I think the cleaning and cooking comments are actually worse than the degree comments.

Essentially it says Mums are a bit stupid, suitable for household chores and always grumpy and tired - but hey, they love you...

I've come across this song too. It's bloody irritating frankly. So for your full reading pleasure, here are the full lyrics:

My mum’s one in a million, I’m sure that you would agree.
I wouldn’t say that she’s perfect, But she’s the best one for me. Sometimes she can get grumpy, And sometimes she gets upset,
But I still know that she loves me, And that I’ll never forget!

CHORUS
Oh! This is a Mother’s Day song for you. Mum, you’re ever so special and I’m Gonna find ways to say I love you too!

My mum’s ever so clever, She may not have a degree,
But she can help with my homework And that’s what matters to me. Sometimes she can be stressy, Sometimes even she shouts!
But I still know that she loves me, And that’s what certainly counts!

CHORUS

My mum’s really an angel, She’s great at caring for me.
She does the cleaning and shopping, And makes a wonderful tea! Sometimes she is too busy, Sometimes she is worn out,
But I still know that she loves me, And that’s what this is about!

CHORUS x 2

My mum’s one in a million,
I’m sure that you would agree.
I wouldn’t say that she’s perfect, But she’s the best one for me.

Well done CranberryCookie for speaking out!

Can't believe the utterly lame song!

DS1 told me about their Mothers' day assembly that they had last week. He said that the teacher was talking about how mums do all the cooking and cleaning and shopping etc etc (no song thankfully!).

DS1 (he's 8yo) said he was listening to it thinking "Dads do that stuff too, it's not fair saying that and Dads would be offended to hear this"

He said he was too shy to voice this view to anyone, but I was pleased to know that he understood that the message the assembly gave was not great. We don't even really talk about this much at home, it's just something that he's observed I guess.

Celebrating St Joseph's Day sounds v thoughtful. That song, on the other hand, is appalling!

It's really a song in appreciation of the Stepford Mother.

I agree that any days celebrating family can be loaded,even Christmas can be a minefield. I've often handled a tricky mother's day by enabling a child to make a card for the most significant woman in their lives, as a thank you. Likewise for Father's day. In some religious schools, they make a point of celebrating St Joseph who wasn't Jesus' biodad, but was there for him on all the occasions that a boy needs his dad.
The choice is either to be as sensitive as you can be, or to ban any and all days like this from the school.

'There's not much feminist thinking in most staffrooms I visit.'

I'm a teacher & this is my first year at this particular school & the cleaning, shopping song was played in hymn practice this week-I couldn't believe it! My jaw nearly hit the ground. In the staff room not one person agreed with me, I got 'oh it's a lovely song' & people thought I was being dead stroppy
In schools' defence about timings of assemblies most schools I've worked in try & do them 1st thing or to finish 10mins before end of day- just enough time for staff to get children sorted for going home
Finishing at 2.30 & expecting you to sit around sounds mad

I was lucky enough to work in a school that would have hooted in derision at those words.

I am really shocked the teachers let that through. They will be mostly women and all of them will have degrees ffs.

"Wow, thanks everyone! I was expecting to be told I was overreacting!"

Such is not the FWR way

I complained to the school after the MD service where my children sang that song - actually the words were even worse, it was

…she may not have a degree, but she’s clever enough for me… she cooks and cleans and makes my tea…

- I said that a lot of the women in the audience did have degrees actually and I also pointed out that schools have a statutory duty under the Equality Act of 2006 to promote equality of opportunity between the sexes and to have objectives which include challenging gender stereotyping.

I have posted about this before - there's at least one thread every year on this song - and depressingly, a lot of posters say it's a lot of fuss about nothing, it's just a bit of fun blah blah. Well I disagree. I think the 5-9 year olds will take it at face value and the clear message is women do not need to be educated.

Goblinchild linked to the lyrics earlier: images.scholastic.co.uk/assets/a/9f/8f/my-mum-lyrics-524534.pdf.

Amazingly it was written in 2002, not 1950.

My children are too old for this sort of thing now, but both dh and I would have missed being there when they were small (and dh went to more school event than me in any case) because we were working. The odd thing I found is that dd would have taken those words as truth even if they were totally at odds with her reality, just because they came from school. I can remember her telling me that mums stayed at home, couldn't be doctors type rubbish and her getting very confused when I reminder her that these things really were true. ds on the other hand never really listened and tended to disagree with everything on principle (school or home!)

It's called "My Mum's One In A Million", lyrics (and many You Tube videos) easily google able. Some of the lyrics are pretty good actually.

Does anyone know the name of this song or have the lyrics?

I have seen a school plays which portrayed women as mums who do little more than shop and do their makeup...but it was written by the kids themselves. that is even worse! the dads were shown as grumpy and hard on their kids...

I have a hard time convincing my kids I am intelligent - they wouldn't even question the intelligence of their dad. But I am teased when I make mistakes or told I can't do something because I wouldn't know how...

Hmmm I managed perfectly Ok before my H was around and before the kids came along. Perhaps pregnancy shrivelled my brain.