My child’s school have changed the name of Mother’s Day to special persons day, what do you think?

[Rainbow03]

Have we gone mad or is this appropriate?

And some adults are capable of feeling empathy. Amazing isn't it.

@LittleFingerStrength you’re massively over reaching on that one 🙄. I started teaching 20 + years ago and we’ve long struggled with these days because of the complex families that children live in nowadays. It’s nothing to do with woke - it’s to do with sensitivity to kids.

Absolutely this. My kids school handled it in this way so that any child that didn't have a Mum would also be included.

I don't believe that we should 'cancel' Mother's day however, because a very small minority may not have a Mother. We need to be sensitive yes, but also realistic.

For what's it's worth, I was one of these kids, being raised by my Dad. My school always made Mother's day craft and encouraged me to participate and make something instead for my Auntie - I don't recall having any issues with this and certainly didn't feel that the day should not be noted because of my personal situation.

Mothers and Others is a good idea. I always celebrated my grandma on Mother's Day and my grandad on Father's day. I had a friend who was being raised by their adult sibling because their only parent had died, so that could have worked well. Likewise people who are in foster care might appreciate it.

I remember getting very sad at school about 18ish years ago, about age 9, when we were told in assembly "We only want to see mummy and daddy's at the assembly, no grandparents or aunties and uncles etc." Basically they were trying to say they only had X number of seats... But I took it very literally and ended up in tears because I didn't have a mummy or daddy.

@LittleFingerStrength
Shhh, stop bringing facts into this

Bonkers to completely erase the word Mother. The majority of children have a Mother. Fine to add or 'Special Person'. The children without a Mother (for whatever reason) know that other children have one.

What, exactly, do you think woke means? Because it doesn’t mean what you think it does.

My partner thinks the world has gone mad. I’m the opposite I’m not offended at all, as long as I get breakfast in bed

It’s good to be sensitive but I’d much prefer they just didn’t make a thing of the day at all - it falls on a Sunday anyway so is a home/family thing. No need to “do” it in school. Older kids will know full well what’s going on with the name change.

From a religious point of view Mothering Sunday wasn't about your mother, it was about visiting your mother church. Children who were in service would have the day off to return home so they could visit their mother church.

Or stop bringing obsessive prejudice into it.

They don't do anything for Father's Day at DC school. Last year every class came out with at least a home made card for Mother's Day so I didn't buy a Fathers Day card thinking DC would make one for him too and they didn't.

If they don't do anything this year I think I will question it at the next PTA meeting.

I found zero sympathy from the school when my children lost their Father, the opposite infact.

Life is unfair, children have to become robust, the family can deal with the grief at home together as people always have done in these situations.

There will be situations in life that others will feel sad and I taught my children to not be thieves of others joy let them enjoy Father's day as they once did, them losing out will not make you any happier.

Don't be rediculous.

I'm guessing school know if there is a child/ are children in the school who have lost mothers / don't live with them.

In my experience school handles things like Mother's Day / Father's Day sensitively for those.

My kids' school is CoE so they do Mothering Sunday and it's links to Lent. They will talk about the mother figures as well as mothers.

For Father's Day they did the same. They talk about father figures and male role models. There was a clearly more talk about great uncles, brothers, grandads, godfathers etc than there had been on Mother's Day. My guess is more children in the school were impacted than on Mother's Day.

As the single adoptive parent/mother of two non-sibling children, I couldn’t agree more. My teen DD is currently having to live away from our home for a myriad of complicated reasons, including trying to reconnect (too young) with her birth mother. My younger DD is desperate to see her birth mother who has gone AWOL. Mother’s Day is a massively triggering event in our household so I anticipate tears, high emotion, tantrums and possibly violence and aggression.

I’m surprised that those objecting don’t have the capacity to understand that not every child has a cookie cut-out, ‘perfect’ family make-up.

That's so sad particularly as the adults wouldn't have wanted to hurt you but so thoughtless. I hope your grandparents were able to attend.

There is professional support for processing grief. Just because you don't think it's useful that doesn't negate its value to others.

@LittleFingerStrength well I’m sorry to hear that but that’s not been my experience and you are still conflating two issues.

Yes i wonder if it is because of this and not a gender neutral agenda.

I will never forget seeing a little boy in DS1s class along with every other classmate in the Mother's Day assembly and tea party just sit there sobbing sioently with shaking shoulders. His mum had died about 6 months previously. It was hideous, poor pet.

And there are sadly loads of kids who are in foster care or who are under special guardianship orders with family members.

My thoughts too. Same for Father's Day, not everyone has a dad in their lives.

@ilovesooty no I meant the comment about mother churches at the start of the thread

Entirely appropriate and sensitive

I agree as my son went to school with a boy who sadly lost his mum suddenly when he was 6 (brain aneurism - I was in the library with her the day before with our toddlers) and my daughter went to school with a girl who tragically lost her dad when she was 9 (heart attack at 40).
I always felt dreadful for those kids when it was mothers/Father's Day and my children brought home cards that they had made at school.
School doesn't need to be involved in these 'days' - let families deal with those days in their own way.

Strawman