Six things moms really need this Mother’s Day

It’s no secret that the coronavirus pandemic has disproportionately impacted parents, especially mothers. As of January, about 10 million American moms were staying home with their school-age children and not actively employed, 1.4 million more than a year earlier.

In a Kaiser Family Foundation survey last summer, 69 percent of mothers said they’ve experienced an adverse health effect from the stress and worry of the pandemic. And gender disparities in household responsibilities persisted, with 59 percent of women saying they do more of the household chores and responsibilities and 74 percent of moms reporting they do more managing their children’s schedules and activities, according to an October Pew Research survey. The list goes on.

So this Mother’s Day, what mothers don’t need is a well-intentioned (but work-intensive) activity, such as hosting a family gathering, cleaning up a destroyed kitchen after brunch or spending the day corralling kids like a normal weekday. They don’t need a “World’s Best Mom” mug or a flower bush they need to make time to plant before it dies.