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?

Exactly.

People with mothers can still celebrate their mothers.

It costs you nothing

Oh I see - sorry.

Why not just explain it is Mothering Sunday. A day where servants had a day off and went home to visit their “mother church” and their Mother’s / family. You can still celebrate which ever person is important to you and still keep the name as Mothering Sunday.

Does the school have a large number of children who are looked after by foster carers, grandmothers, aunts etc? It might not be about the trans issue. A lot of people get very upset around mothers day if they've lost their own mother and I can see how the school might be trying to accommodate this. I have wondered how DD's class teacher has handled this as one of her friends lost her mum last year.

I would prefer that they dealt individually with children like that and perhaps suggested they make a card for granny/aunty/marigold or perhaps a note they can write to their mum who isn't there. But it could be from a good place?

Don't be ridiculous. I made a valid point.

Uh oh, I see how the thread has developed I think what the school has done is fine.
I think Mothering Sunday is about mother churches not mums

Screaming mad!
At a push, I take Mothers and other Special person's day, to accomodate young children that may be struggling with not having a Mother on the day while other children do. Though, I think this is better addresed by talking to the individual child and suporting them individually, not the whole school changing the name of a day. That would have actually made me feel like proper shit if it had happened when I was in school. I would rather the others carried out normally.
Honestly, many children lost siblings, grandparents or parents while in school, and the teachers would observe and support. We celebrated, made cards and presents for all big events and nobody made a big issur out of it.

Why not just explain it is Mothering Sunday. A day where servants had a day off and went home to visit their “mother church” and their Mother’s / family. You can still celebrate which ever person is important to you and still keep the name as Mothering Sunday.
I'd agree with this.
Acknowledge the event and celebrate according to your family unit.

This.

Surely the most inclusive way to celebrate this is to say whilst this days is 'Mothers Day' and we're happy to celebrate all the Mums, that it's also an opportunity to say that not everyone has the same person that gave birth to them as their primary carer - and that the card can be to anyone who they feel fills that role in their lives. Or something less clunky!
My Mum died several years ago but it's still Mother's Day for me. My Dad is still alive but we're not close and yet I don't want to stop anyone else celebrating Father's Day.
If it's generally thought insensitive to approach this in schools then stop doing the cards altogether than this kind of fudge.

I point blankly refused to make Mothers Day cards aged 7 after seeing the trauma my 'mother figure' experienced on receiving it. She broke down and cried - for the tragic death of my mother - and because of a lot of family responsibility had not been able to grieve properly. Seeing her upset was the last thing I thought I'd see - she was a stoic woman, and I'd upset her by bringing in this card. I shut myself in my room and cried because I hadn't meant to inflict sadness.

If any teacher knows of a child within their class who does not have a mother, then they should rephrase the making of cards into something appropriate. I'm not in agreement with it being a widespread change - Mothers Day is steeped in biblical roots, but I do think teachers should be sensitive.

No not necessarily, I have a young family member who doesn't have her dad in her life and last Father's Day was handled very poorly at school and she came home in tears about it, it was so upsetting for her.

If we want something more inclusive than Mother’s Day, for those without an actual mother in their lives, why not revert to the traditional Mothering Sunday? The definition of the verb ‘to mother’ is

bring up (a child) with care and affection/look after (someone) kindly and protectively.

Like I suspect most people I've spent the last 2 weeks receiving communictoins from a plethora of companies asking if I want to opt out of Mothers' Day emails.

If it's considered appropriate for adults to be "protected" from discussion of Mothers' Day, why is it not also appropriate for children?

It's a selfish narcissistic act to thieve joy from others because you are sad.

There's also a lot of children who don't see their mum or dad for whatever reason (my exH never had a father) so they shouldn't be made to feel left out, awkward or 'different'.
IMO Schools should not recognise these days.
BTW, my children have both a mum and dad.

I had a complicated family history and was allowed to make cards for my Grandma at Primary. Sensitively handled it can be fine.

However it does depend on the circumstances of the class. As a cub leader we chose to miss out Mother's Day cards the year one of our cubs lost his mother.

My mum died when I was in school. I would have appreciated this.

So what happens when it's Father's Day? Is that Special Person (2's) Day?

I raised my son on my own, I would have been disgusted if they had chosen to do this to Father’s Day at his school!

Not only would have made my son more aware that his dad was no more, that would have put him under the spot light for all the school!!!

Honestly, kids with no mothers can still make cards for their grannies, aunts and foster parents if given the choice to do them for whoever they want, there is no need to cancel a full Mother’s Day. My son made cards them for his dad no matter what of time my cousin or my best friend after he had assimilated his absence more.

I would imagine the school have changed their policy in response to a child / children who don't have a mother in their lives and are likely to be distressed if everyone else in the class is making Mother's Day cards

You'd have to have a heart of stone to criticise the school for that

Given that less than half the UK adult population (46.2 per cent) identified as a Christian during the last recorded Census (2021), why the straw man arguments about referring to the festival as ‘Mothering Sunday’?

It’s easy for people to say a child can give it to an aunty/ uncle, grandma/ grandad, clearly don’t realise not all children have mother/ father figures. My daughter doesn’t so when they did Father’s Day at her school she had no uncle, grandfather or stepdad to give it to, she’s also not stupid and figured out she was one of the only children NOT writing it to her father as all the other children were, she wrote it to her brother but she came out of school so upset and kept asking me what her fathers favourite colour was and what his favourite food was as obviously the other children had been talking about it. She also stopped wanting to go to school after being completely fine until then and it took weeks for her to feel comfortable going again. Even the headteacher told me they will be rethinking the day because of how upsetting it can be for some children.

I think schools just shouldn't do anything for it. Renaming it is pointless - it just is Mother's Day, that's its name.

But I'd have no issue with a school just not doing a card-making activity for it.

I actually love this. As a father-free gimmer, I was 'sensitively' pulled out of Father's Day activities in school which basically made me feel like I had a scarlet letter on my uniform. There's no way to do it properly inclusively so it shouldn't be done at all, or should be modified - I actually really like the pp's suggestion of Mothers and Others.

Goes without saying that Father's Day should be treated the same way too.