COMMENT
It was the end of a 10-hour work day. I'd collected the kids from school and kindy and hooned into the supermarket to beat the pre-dinner rush.
It was like any other day, and I am like any other Mother.
Zipping around the aisles with high heels and hungry kids, I grabbed my supplies before heading towards the check out when I was stopped in my tracks.
Standing before me, in prime position, was a shelving display packed with can openers. Not unusual I know.
What irked me was the marketing signage emblazoned across the top: 'Happy Mother's Day – Sunday 12 May'.
Surely a joke? Well actually – no.
A few paces to the left – another Mother's Day gift stand – this time for tea towels. And it gets better, the next stand for the As seen on TV Swifty Sweep. "It's like a broom and dustpan in one". You guessed it – the marketing suggested it was a perfect gift for Mother's Day.
Well not this Mother!
On what marketing planet was this dinosaur concept created? What loon thought this would resonate with the modern kiwi mum? Why are we – in the home of the suffrage movement - still subjected to such offensive advertising drivel?
I put every ounce of energy I have into jointly raising my young family with my husband.
It is offensive to see that all I am worthy of for such a tough job is a pair of tea towels.
How about this: let's avoid being sucked in to the marketing hype of Mother's Day.
Let's thank our beautiful, smart, loving, hard-working mums with thoughtful words and kind actions.
Avoid spending your hard-earned cash on junk items that reinforce negative ideals.
And in future, I challenge our big corporate retailers to think long and hard about the damage caused with out-dated perceptions of what Mother's want and need.
I'm telling you now – it's not a bloody can opener! (And FYI…. I am rather partial to a brand-new pair of high heels).