On Mother's Day? You've got to be kidding!

Mother's Day was created to celebrate the mothers in our lives. We bring them breakfast in bed, make or give them cards and presents, tell them you much we love them, and sing to them in church. Every Mother's Day program that I have been too in our Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has consisted of the Primary singing songs to their moms, talks by youth and men about mothers or their wife, and usually the youth or the men singing to their mothers/wifes. This past Sunday, our ward program consisted of two youth talks, a man speaking, the primary singing, and a musical number by the Relief Society. That's right, the Relief Society (an organization in our church of women 18 and older). A couple of weeks before Mother's Day they announced in Relief Society that we would be singing on Mother's Day- to ourselves. Hmmm.... why? That is a good question. Their is one Sunday every year where I look forward to being told publicly how wonderful mother's are and how much our children love us (because we all know that as they get older they refuse to tell us that they love us, especially in public). Why on this special day should I have to sing to myself? My mom doesn't live in our ward and neither do most of the women's moms. It wasn't being broadcast to all the ward buildings in the world. We have plenty of young men, young women, and men in our ward. Why do we need to sing to ourselves? For two or three weeks we practiced singing to ourselves in Relief Society. My friends and I decided that we weren't going to sing during the program because why should we? It's our one day off a year. Mother's Day came and the wonderful time for the women to get up and sing to themselves came. I didn't move. I continued to sit in my pew. There was no way I was going up there. As I sat holding my child listening to the other women sing, I thought just how ridiculous it was that the women are up there singing to themselves while all the men and youth sat in the audience listening. There was something seriously wrong with that picture. I was probably one of the only women left in the audience, as my friends weren't even there to back me up in my defiance. During Relief Society that day, our music leader said how someone commented how none of the women were smiling and a few women here and there chimed in by saying "I was smiling" as to defend themselves. I thought about raising my hand and saying "Why should I smile? I had to sing to myself on Mother's Day?" but I didn't want to ruffle too many feathers. Has anybody else had to sing to themselves at church on Mother's Day? Let's see if our Father's Day program consists of the men singing to themselves.