I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s. It would be easy for me to say that those were simpler times; and they were.
I’m also an unrepentant nostalgic and traditionalist, so it should therefore surprise no one that I have a lot of respect for mothers and Mother’s Day.
But not everyone agrees.
Just last week, officials at Toronto’s Kew Beach Junior Public High School removed an innocuous Mother’s Day message posted to a marquee outside the school. Why? Someone complained that the message wasn’t sufficiently “inclusive”.
The message was this:
“Life does not come with a manual, it comes with a mom.”
Now, there might be a point here (though not the point the complainer was trying to make). I understand that not all children have mothers. Mothers die in childbirth. Mothers are absent because of addiction, divorce, and other unfortunate circumstances.
That wasn’t the issue here, though. The source of ire up in Canada was that the sign “didn’t take into account kids from different kinds of families like LGBTQ families”.
Two dads, in other words. Or a polyamorous parenting ensemble consisting of multiple adults of various gender identities and orientations.
It will be only a matter of time (mark my words on this one) before some school district or especially woke city council declares Mother’s Day itself to be insufficiently inclusive, and seeks to cancel it. Look at what just happened at Kew Beach Junior Public High School. Someone complained, and the people in charge caved, rather than bear an accusation of thoughtcrime.
There’s a lesson here: When we listen to crazy people, we get crazy times. When we cringe before ideological extremists, their values become our reality.
Mother’s Day is Mother’s Day. It doesn’t include everyone. It doesn’t include me, for example, because I’m a biological male and I’m not a parent.
And you know what? I’m perfectly fine with that.
Happy Mother’s Day, 2023!
