Gef’s Mother’s Day Rebrand: A New Look for the Realities of Manx Motherhood

I don’t know how I feel about Mother’s Day. Aesthetically, its commercialisation is brimming with boringly placid colours, the kind you’d find at a wake that would, ironically, put you to sleep with how dull they are. Shades of diluted pink and wispy beige, comfortingly inoffensive, bland, meek. In a word, forgettable. THIS is the colour scheme we dedicate to, arguably, the least forgettable person in people’s lives? These wishy-washy wimpy colours are what we associate with the one day of the year dedicated to celebrating motherhood, when motherhood is anything but wimpy or forgettable.

I am not a parent. I can’t keep a fake plant alive. But I have a mum, who has a mum, who had a mum, and you get it. So, I’ve taken it upon myself to rebrand the Mother’s Day aesthetic once and for all.

Graphics: Let’s start with the animal kingdom.

The dominant animals gracing Mother’s Day cards are 1; a butterfly and 2; a bunny. Soft, delicate, small animals that are adorable and easily crushable. Why are these the choices? In many species, the mother is the primary protector of the young. It’s seen in elephants, mama bears, lionesses, and the most terrifyingly intelligent species since the raptor, orcas. All would rip your throat out and tear your face off if you even came close to threatening their babies.

The same can be said for us humans. Have you ever seen Dance Moms? I rest my case. Audrey will slash someone’s tyres before she lets her little Penelope’s sensational kick-ball-change get shunned to the back row of the chorus. So, whack a Killer Whale on the front of Mother’s Day cards instead. Ideally, with the caption ‘You’re a KILLER Mother’.

Font: Enough script, let’s pick something fierce.

Next, let’s talk about a mother’s capacity to grow life within the body, and then actually BREAKING that body to give birth.

Physically, emotionally, and mentally the pain thresholds mums have are insane. They literally tear their bodies or get cut open to ensure human beings don’t fall into extinction. This off the back of hours of labour and 9 months of crazy hormones, during which a tiny human intermittently kicks them from the inside, the ungrateful little sh*t. THEN the emotional turmoil that comes when your sweet baby Arnold tells you they hate you, pulling your hair in a fit of rage after being denied jelly. THEN the mental anguish that comes when you’re on the fifteenth time of explaining to your cherub that the answer to 2 plus 2 is 4, NOT ‘Badger’. The physical, mental, and emotional resilience to withstand all this is stronger than steel AND PEOPLE CHOOSE TO DO IT MULTIPLE TIMES.

The gentle, looping script on every Mother’s Day card isn’t telling the whole story. Get Britannic Bold in there. We need a font that can put up a FIGHT.

Colours: Break with gendered tradition.

The majority of mothers are expected to act as the primary caregivers and homemakers on top of working. The inequality is revealed simply by the term ‘working mum’. Ever heard someone described as a ‘working dad’? No. Because dads are still not regarded as totally equal when it comes to parenting. We see it when dads are applauded for balancing work with doing the bare minimum for their children, like picking them up from school. Where dads get praise, mums still get demonised, often by other mums. ‘I can’t believe she’s not taking time off work to pick her kids up from school.’

The double standards between parents show ‘traditional roles’ within the family are still very much in place in the eyes of society. A recent British Social Attitudes survey found that though more than three quarters of the people they interviewed believed domestic labour should be split, more than two thirds of women (63%) were still doing the majority of unpaid domestic labour; cooking and cleaning.

Maybe the Mother’s Day colour scheme is so soft as not to attack the senses with mums being exhausted all the time, but if women are doing the men’s share of work, then we’re entitled to their colour palette too.

Packaging: Highly flexible.

So, what does it mean to be a mum? It’s being the human equivalent of a safe space. A place of unconditional love. A fierce protector. A sacrificer. To mother is to be a shapeshifter. A chameleon. Capable of changing your body and mind (you thought you’d be done with GCSE physics? HAHAHA PSYCH, here’s your kids’ homework) to nurture others.

And yet, becoming a mum doesn’t mean that it’s someone’s sole identity. It’s important to celebrate mums not only in relation to their children and the infinite sacrifices they’ve made for our benefit, but in who they are as people. As head-banging rock enthusiasts, as freight-train strong athletes, as savvy, street-smart poker players, as eye-wateringly beautiful dancers, singers, and artists, as witty wordsmiths, intellectual enthusiasts, political activists, peaceful readers, people just trying to make ends meet while enjoying the feeling of the sun on their face, and everything in between.

Gifting: Take it up a notch.

Traditional offerings on Mother’s Day are a card accompanied by breakfast in bed. Which I personally wouldn’t want because if my hypothetical kids have made it, it’ll be terrible and I’ll have to clean it up, hungry, because the eggs were inedible. Flowers are also a classic. But everyone loves flowers, so that’s fine, that can stay. But please. PLEASE. Up the ante on the colour scheme.

So, to mums, future mums, mums who are trying and struggling to be mums, new mums, old mums, mums who have lost children, mums who have adopted, dads who are also mums, and mums who aren’t mums in the ‘traditional’ sense but who mother fiercely: you deserve a day that is anything but bland and forgettable.