Every year on Mother’s Day, I see people post old family photos on social media with captions praising moms for all the ways they prioritized their kids’ needs at the expense of their own. “You dropped whatever you were doing to help us.” “You never bought anything for yourself so we could have whatever we wanted.” “You made it to every one of my baseball games, no matter what else you had going on.”
The posts are sweet, appreciative and written with the best of intentions. But they perpetuate this narrative that being a good mom means being a martyr.