Is this reverance for motherhood so ubiquitous that it's cliche nature takes away from the real thing?

This is a hard thing to talk about, since to question the defication of motherhood—(and apple pie, which I’m not questioning)—is tantamount to torturing babies with toothpicks. However, I find this reverance for motherhood to be quite over the top. It has become a cliche, and I don’t think it means as much because of it. Flowers, chocolates, family and a restaurant. Maybe a gift, too. Does anyone else think that going through the formula makes it all quite trite?

My wife is big on symbols. I love her, so I’m happy to provide them. But to me, symbols are pretty much nonsense. What matters to me is how you act. A mother is doing what her biology allows her to do. She may love it or hate it. She may feel constricted by social norms, guilty for not spending enough time with her child, even like a bad mom. If she’s trying, then that’s something I appreciate, flowers or no.

But this hucksterism of Mother’s Day pressures us to do things in certain ways, just to be socially acceptable. “What did you do for Mother’s Day?” No way you can say that you watched the game while she did the laundry.

Mothering is important. But so is being a caring person no matter what your relationship to someone else is. Somehow, it seems to me that putting motherhood on a pedestal takes away from it, instead of adding to it. Maybe I’m just some kind of soulless curmudgeon. What do you think about motherhood? Where does it belong in the pantheon of cultural gods?