Mormons take gender roles very seriously (in case you didn't follow any of the news in California last year) and, as such, tend to make a big deal out of Mother's Day and Father's Day. They'll even base entire church meetings around those days. However, their approach to the two holidays couldn't be any more diferent.
Mother's Day will usually be celebrated with teary-eyed church members gushing about how important mothers are, and how much they love their own mothers. Stripling warriors and their mothers will be invoked repeatedly. Sentimental poems will be read and church leaders will be quoted about how awesome every mom always is. Flowers might be presented to all the women at church. Maybe even candy.
On Father's Day, men at church will be told to do a better job. They'll be lectured about how important their job is, and how awful everything is because they're slackers. Priesthood meeting will be especially awful. Luckily, most men will assume that the sermons are meant for those other guys, not him, and will blissfully look forward to a steak dinner when he gets home.
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4 comments:
"most men will assume that the sermons are meant for those other guys, not him..."
Ironically enough, most women will think the gushing about mothers doesn't apply to them, either.
HAHA! Oh, yeah. I agree with seashome, too! We had to speak this Mother's Day. Cruel and unusual? Absolutley! For Father's Day I take a pic with each kid, cut an obnoxiously colored tie out of large construction paper (the bigger the better) and glue the kids' pics on. They then write a note or draw a picture. We laminate it and present it for the ward's viewing pleasure on Father's Day. This year he is a stake clerk. It will be SWEET!! I think we will go with blue this year. Not TOO obscene.
caveat - love the blog - posts are mostly hilarious, but this post has a lot of truth (unfortunately), and as an imperfect father, i think we deserve it. ironically, my daily gems email from the Church had this quote:
“It is our responsibility as fathers to lead our families in daily family prayer, daily study of the scriptures, and in family home evening. We must prioritize and preserve these opportunities to build and strengthen the spiritual underpinnings of our families. President Hinckley said: ‘Try not to let anything interfere. Consider it sacred’ (Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting, June 21, 2003, 22).”
The reality in most homes that mother's take on that duty, not us men. And imo, that's why we see the difference in these days :)
sorry to bring a serious tone to a fun and great blog, but just a thought.
To Anonymous; there's nothing wrong with bringing a serious tone to the blog. I think we try to use this blog to poke gentle, good natured fun at our foibles and peculiarities, but if satire goads us into being a little bit better, hey, all the better, right?
By the way, thanks for the kind words, and glad you enjoy the blog!
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