As we woke up and celebrated Mother’s Day with my wife, I started to wonder about honoring the day.
Not Mother’s Day in particular, but days in general. For instance, Earth Day, or Teacher Appreciation Day, or Veteran’s Day. On some level, shouldn’t we be honoring the recipients of the recognition on those days for every day of the year?
There is a funny thing about days of recognition. Yes, we want to highlight all the great things that people have done for us and others. At the same time, we should be bestowing that honor on those people anyway.
So, as my two kids went out of their way to be nice to their mother, I wondered, how can I as an individual, and all of us, as a society, help show that those special behaviors of recognition shouldn’t necessarily be special at all?
Yes, I mentioned to my kids that we should treat mom this way every day. And yes, I also mentioned that we should make sure that we understand that days like Mother’s Day are meant to celebrate Mom, but we should celebrate her every day.
But, I’m not so sure that I’m doing all I can to help them understand this. The same can be said for our teachers. While we put together wonderful events for our teachers, often goodies, and/or food and we make announcements to show how much they mean to our schools and districts, we also need to make sure we are doing this type of recognition each and every day.
If asked, would I rather have an amazing Father’s Day, or the acknowledgement from my kids of my work as a dad every day, I would easily choose the latter.