Rachel’s Team Pick:
There’s something about major national holidays that somehow serves to reinforce the status quo — Valentine’s Day, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and other holidays can feel a little lonely or weird sometimes if you have anything other than the Perfect Normative Relationship or Tolstoy-esque Happy Family. On Mother’s Day, mothers (and children) who weren’t raised in the Cleaver household can feel like they’re not the ones being celebrated. Enter these Mama’s Day cards from Strong Families — they feature families of all shapes, sizes, and structures, and celebrate how beautiful and strong all kinds of mothers are.
The cards were designed by eight fantastic artists, including Nikki McClure and Melanie Cervantes. The images and statements acknowledge the many types of families: two moms, single moms, activist moms, professional caregivers. Other cards acknowledge moms dealing with loss, separated from their children by immigration, incarceration.
We know the traditional mother’s day celebrations fall short–so we’re offering our own way to celebrate. We’ll also be blogging for the next few weeks about the issues that matter most to our mamas.
If you’d like to follow the Mama’s Day activities, check out our twitter and facebook pages. The hashtag is #mamasday.
There are eighteen e-cards to choose from, and chances are good at least one would be meaningful and appreciated by someone in your life. Happy Mother’s Day!
Ah! This is perfect! Just finished reading this: http://www.reproductivejusticeblog.org/2012/05/mothers-day-for-rest-of-us.html and now this article. Autostraddle, you balance out my day.
AND I just realized the article I mentioned has a link to the cards at the very end. Ok, well, then, I saw them first on Autostraddle anyway. I will now stop trying to work and comment online at the same time.
I love these!
Oh gosh, that last one. So adorable.
That last one is modified line of a slam poem by Lacey Roop. She is pretty awesome.
Like, I can’t even handle that one, it makes me want to cry a little and then be a star mom someday I DON’T EVEN KNOW
these are so perfect.
I love these! There should be less generic cards for every kind of occasion! Not everyone on their birthday can be reduced to the type of person who likes either corny jokes or saccharine statements.
Are there any of these for a mother who disowns you over something you can’t/shouldn’t have to change about yourself? That one might come in handy. Maybe I’ll just send one of these nice ones to my best friend’s mothers!
Wow! in love with these. Thanks for sharing your ideas.