Mother’s Day Etiquette: Honouring the Women Before Us, and Beside Us
- Susie Barber
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
Mother’s Day Etiquette: Honouring the Women Before Us, and Beside Us.
By Susie Barber, Author & Etiquette Expert
Mother's Day is not only a celebration of the mothers we hold today it is also a tribute to those who came before us, whose love, strength, and sacrifice still echo through generations.
In a recent and deeply honest reflection, Jenny-May Clarkson shared the quiet truth so many women carry — that behind full lives can sit exhaustion, pressure, and the feeling of being stretched too thin.👉 https://www.stuff.co.nz/wellbeing/360963146/jenny-may-clarkson-leaving-breakfast-i-was-so-stretched-and-stressed
Her words feel modern, yet the essence of them is timeless because motherhood has always asked more than it ever shows.
The Etiquette of Remembering
Before celebrations became curated and calendars filled, there were women who carried families through hardship, uncertainty, and change often without recognition.
Good etiquette asks us to remember them. The grandmothers, the great-grandmothers the women whose names we speak and those whose stories live quietly within us. Their strength is not simply history.It is inheritance.
Honouring the Unseen Thread
Every mother today stands on the shoulders of those before her.
The patience you show.The care you give.The sacrifices made without announcement.
These are not isolated acts they are part of a lineage. To honour your mother is to honour her mother too.And hers before that.
Presence Over Perfection
Jenny-May Clarkson spoke of something many are now reclaiming presence.
Not performance. Not perfection. But time. Sitting together. Talking without distraction. Simply being. This is where past and present meet. Because long before the noise of modern life, connection was simple and deeply human.
"A Mother’s Day Message From My Heart written by Susie Barber "
To the mothers of today,and to the women who came before you,
We honour you. For the hands that worked tirelessly,for the hearts that carried more than they ever showed,for the love that shaped lives quietly and powerfully.
To those no longer with us your presence remains, woven into who we are.
To those walking this path now may you feel the strength of those who walked it before you.
And to those for whom today feels tender, complex, or quiet your story is held with dignity too.
The Grace of Inclusion
True etiquette expands it does not exclude.
So today, we hold space for Mothers here, and mothers remembered Women who nurtured without title Those who longed to mother. Those navigating distance, grief, or change Because motherhood is not only a role it is a legacy of care.
A Final Reflection
If there is one truth to carry forward, it is this:
We are not simply celebrating a day. We are honouring generations.
And the most meaningful way to do that is to live, love, and show up with the same quiet grace they gave us Today, I honour not only the mothers beside us but the women who came before us. Their strength lives on in the way we love, care, and carry others forward.
Motherhood is not just a role.It is a legacy.
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