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It’s my first Mother’s Day, and of course, I’m going to spend some of it online. Is that sad? My own mother would say yes. But I’m not going to neglect my baby or forego the chance (hint, hint) to sleep late so I can read blogs. It’s just that the web is part of who I am as a mother. The screen is us. Might as well embrace it.
We’ve grown accustomed to twinning the web with mothers (I say “mom,” you say ”blog) but I was thinking back to the late nineties when I worked at iVillage.com. Every Mother’s Day we’d launch a campaign called “Take Your Mom Online.” It was so incredibly fun, and kind of a radical concept back then- and I remember wanting so badly to bring my own mom online so our photo could be featured on the website. Ten years later, she’s definitely online, video chatting and eBaying up a storm. But I’d say it took her these ten full years to reach a point where the web was a fun destination, not something she got dragged into.
So, in celebration of moms webby and not, here are three fantastic online happenings that celebrate Mother’s Day online.
- "Mother of the Year" at MomsRising.org. MomsRising created the best viral video/e-card I’ve seen in a long time. It is so fun to do. And, MomsRising is one of the best non-profits out there, devoted to helping create family-friendly workplaces and public policy.
- Momocrats is working with CARE and the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood to promote their Mother's Day Every Day campaign to fight death in childbirth. Every minute, a mother dies in childbirth. The alliance wants "to spread the word about the importance of supporting and protecting mothers." They're asking us to share our stories about how our children came into the world (or into the family). I've been meaning to write down my son's birth story for months now. This has inspired me to do it, and for a good cause.
- PostPartumProgress, whose advice I’ve found invaluable, is hosting a Mother’s Day Rally for Moms’ Mental Health; the Rally takes place on Sunday, Mother's Day. It "will be held online, featuring 24 open letters to new mothers on the importance of maternal mental health. All of the letters will be written by survivors of and experts on perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, including postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis, as well as by others who care about the emotional well-being of moms and moms-to-be. The event will be hosted at Postpartum Progress (http://postpartumprogress.typepad.com), the most widely-read blog in the United States on perinatal mood and anxiety disorders."
The lineup features amazing writers like Rita Arens and Catherine Connors. Katherine Stone, who founded and runs PostPartumProgress, has been a lifeforce in normalizing peri and post natal depression and sadness and providing information to those in need. I've called on her, and I'm so glad she's doing what she is doing.
Happy Mother's Day everyone!
