Dear John,

My mom is one of my best friends and closest confidants, and I feel privileged to be able to have Mother’s Day to celebrate her. She raised me and my sister as a single mom and has shown me unconditional love and support every day of my life.

My mom also hates Mother’s Day. She hated Hallmark cards, flowers that died, and bad chocolate candy. But most of all, she hated the pressures of Mother’s Day and that my sister and I would inevitably fight over trying to give her a “perfect” day.

Mother’s Day can be hard for many reasons. If you have a strained relationship with your mother, if your mom isn’t present as you wish she would be, if your mother has passed away, if you are yearning to be a mother, or if your mother figure is someone other than your mother, Mother’s Day may be difficult.

Working at the National Women’s Law Center, it makes me angry that society celebrates mothers one day a year, but conveniently deprioritizes them the other 364 days by failing to address the wide range of issues affecting the lives of mothers across the country—from affordable child care, to pregnancy accommodations, to access to reproductive health care, and more. My mom’s ideal Mother’s Day? A commitment to protect reproductive health care so that her daughters can choose when and if they ever want to become mothers. This year, I hope you spend Mother’s Day in whatever way feels best for you—and we want to know what that is!

From all of us at NWLC, we wish you a peaceful Mother’s Day—no matter how you spend the day. Most of all, we promise to continue fighting on behalf of mothers today and every other day of the year.

Finally, to my mom (who reads every single one of these emails specifically because I have a hand in them), thank you for being my greatest role model. I love you.

In gratitude,

Hallie Meisler
she/her/hers
Creative and Digital Strategies Manager
National Women's Law Center