Mother’s Day: When Love & Sacrifice Speak Louder Than Words

As dawn’s first light filtered through windows across the nation this Mother’s Day, homes quietly stirred as children tiptoed to surprise their mothers with coffee in bed and handwritten notes of gratitude. Yet the heart of our celebration lies far beyond breakfast trays and bouquets of roses. It resides in the invisible tapestry of sacrifice, resilience, and unwavering devotion that mothers weave each day—often without fanfare.

In 2025, the role of “mother” transcends traditional boundaries. In bustling urban centres, corporate executives negotiate million-dollar contracts by day and transform into bedtime-story narrators by night, seamlessly toggling between boardroom power suits and pajama-clad caretakers. From remote villages to crowded metros, working-from-home mothers have turned their living rooms into makeshift classrooms and daycare centres, their calendars a patchwork of Zoom meetings and snack-time schedules. Single parents navigate financial uncertainties and societal pressures alone, embodying a fierce independence born of necessity. Grandmothers and aunts stand ready as pillars of support, stepping in when parents must work late or simply need a moment’s respite. Each of these women—whether they hold an MBBS degree, run a roadside snack stall, or manage a cottage industry—contributes to the same powerful narrative: that a mother’s love is bound by neither geography nor circumstance.

Yet for all our tributes, we too often overlook the true cost of this devotion: the staggering volume of unpaid care work. Globally, women perform nearly three times more domestic labour than men, from cooking and cleaning to emotional planning and decision-making. These unseen tasks have real-world consequences. Career trajectories stall as mothers take extended leave or scale back ambitions to care for children and elders. Retirement savings erode when years spent out of the workforce do not count toward pension benefits. And each forgotten “to-do” list, each midnight lullaby, adds to a mental load that never truly ends. Recognizing this work as economic and social capital is not merely an act of gratitude—it is an imperative for equity and empowerment.

Imagine a world where parental leave is genuinely shared, where paternity leave is as commonplace as maternity leave, and where companies measure success not only by quarterly profits but by the well-being of all their employees, mothers included. Picture community-run childcare co-operatives, where mothers rotate supervision duties, building human connections even as they free one another to pursue education or part-time work. Envision pension systems that grant credit for years spent in caregiving, ensuring financial security for mothers long after their children have grown. These are not fanciful dreams but achievable goals—policies and practices that already thrive in pockets of our country and beyond.

Still, the most transformative gesture we can offer today is our presence. That five-minute phone call to ask, “How are you, really?” can mean more than any ornate gift basket. An offer to cook dinner, run errands, or simply sit alongside a weary mother in shared silence can lighten her invisible burden. This Mother’s Day, let us move beyond the ritual of flowers and cards and pledge to honor mothers with sustained action—advocating for policy reforms, supporting community initiatives, and redefining success to include the priceless labour of love that mothers perform every day.

To borrow the words of Maya Angelou, “To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power.” Today, we celebrate not just the chaos and the calm, but the unbreakable force of that devotion. Let our gratitude echo beyond 24 hours, shaping a society where caring is shared, valued, and championed—so that every mother, in every walk of life, knows her worth and never stands alone.