Today is Mother's Day in the UK and Ireland and although Mother's Day is celebrated in most countries around the world, different countries celebrate it on different days of the year.  Indeed a Mother's Day falls in some country during nearly every month of the year.  One universal feature is that the celebration is Mother's Day rather than Mothers' Day - the distinction being that we are celebrating the achievements of our own individual mother, rather than of all mothers collectively.

The ancient Greeks and Romans celebrated festivals to Mother's and such a celebration features in most religions too.  In the UK and Ireland, Mother's Day falls on the Fourth Sunday in Lent, suggesting that its origins lie with the Catholic Church celebrations of the Virgin Mary.

In the USA, Anna Jarvis began a campaign to establish Mother's Day which was eventually recognised as a national holiday in 1914, falling on the second Sunday in May.  However the holiday was quickly commercialised and Jarvis quickly came to regret what had become of it, spending the rest of her life campaigning against the commercialisation of the festival.  Today Mother's Day is worth over $4bn to the US economy!

Whatever your feelings on whether it's an important celebration or all commercial hype, no one can deny that Mothers deserve to have their achievements celebrated, so take some time to reflect on your own mother, and let's be grateful for all they have done for us!

With 2010 approaching fast, have you thought how to explain this complicated concept to your little ones?  Preschool children don't understand the concept of years easily - a year as a slice of time is a significant period of time for them.  Try explaining by putting it into context:-

• Explain that each year they have a birthday and get one year older
• Exlain that the world where we live also gets a year older on New Year's Day
• Explain that we give a label to each year; a big, big, number
• Explain that we are going from 2009 to 2010 and that after that comes 2011 and so on...

Why not celebrate as well by choosing a new year's resolution.  Look at something to change in the New Year, a milestone as part of growing up.  Perhaps talk about giving up a dummy or pacifier, walking more or giving up the pushchair or moving from a baby car seat to a booster seat.  Look at an aspect of behaviour to improve, such as learning to eat a food that they don't enjoy, sharing toys with sibling or being better at tidying their toys away after play.

Don't expect your young children to understand fully what New Year is all about, but try to instill a sense of what you are celebrating, and have them join them in the celebrations too!