A celebration of parents

Every May and June, we celebrate Mothers and Fathers for their love and sacrifice for us, the children. Children get their turn only in September on Children's day. I think this is a recent development for I cannot remember such Mother/Father's day occasions when I was growing up a long time ago. So I wonder who decided the 2nd weeks of May and June for such occasions? Actually, the ones who benefit the most are retailers and restaurateurs because children often feel obliged to get something for their parents and/or take them out for an extra special meal. In May and June, you will see many advertisements from restaurants that helpfully suggests their special Mother/Father's Day menus. Flower and gift shops will also have their own promotions. The net outcome is that the children are some tens of dollars, some even hundreds of dollars the poorer from these 2 separate occasions (2 sets of gifts, 2 dinners, etc).

I am not trying to begrudge anybody anything, much less my mother (my father has already passed on). But wouldn't it make more sense on everyone's pocket, and my children's much smaller pockets, to combine these 2 days - Mother's Day and Father's Day - into one Parent's Day instead? After all, you don't exclude your Father at a Mother's day meal and vice versa, do you? I don't think you will love either one of them less by putting these occasions together, right? In the worst instance (mother and father are separated), you still have 3 meals in a day to split between the 2, right?

Well, call me a scrooge, but I think it makes more sense this way than having it on separate days. After all, it is not just the mother, but also the father, who gives the love and care that children deserve. That either one of them shows this in their different ways doesn't mean that one loves the child more than the other.

So I say, lets do away with Mother's Day and Father's Day and combine it into a Parents' Day. It brings out the important role of both parties in the well-being of the family.