Mother’s Day is overrated

FILE -- May 8, 2011: Tulips are seen in full bloom at Veterans Park Sunday, , in Skokie, Ill. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

According to the National Retail Federation, you and I will drop north of $20 billion on our mothers this week. That’s a lot of flowers, jewelry and spa gift certificates.

Don’t forget the card! Grab one that sings, smells or shares a very special message written by a perfect stranger in his bathrobe in Kansas City. So tender.

What good is it to spend $20 billion on Mother's Day and drop our dirty clothes on the floor Monday morning?

Maybe we’ll make a meal, vacuum, do some dishes or get the kids out of her hair for a few hours. You might even run loads of laundry. Unless, like me, you’ve been banned from the washer since the tragic Sharpie incident of 2010. We don't speak of it.

I get it. We love her. Who doesn’t? You might have heard that my own marvelous Mom won the handmade hot-pot holder for National Mother of the Year so often they finally discontinued the award.

It's natural, right? We just want to lavish her with things because she's been lavishing us with love since our first breath. Still, I’m confident 300 feet of shelf-space at Wal-Mart isn’t quite what the mother of Mother’s Day, Anna Jarvis, had in mind.

You remember Jarvis, don’t you? After her mother’s death in 1905, Jarvis wanted a day to honor the tremendous sacrifices of her mother and yours. This passion became a crusade, and, in May of 1908, the first celebration unfolded at a Methodist church in Grafton, West Virginia.

Jarvis encouraged celebrating moms by wearing a white carnation and spending extra time at her side, perhaps by sitting next to her in church. It was a personal celebration of life between children and the one who made life possible in the first place.

The day was a hit, but Jarvis wasn’t done. Her tireless efforts culminated in 1914 with the official declaration of a national Mother’s Day by President Woodrow Wilson.

It was all downhill from there.

Before you could say