The holiday rush of winter and spring is starting to wind down, which means that today’s column lands squarely on one of the later days of celebration — Mother’s Day.

Mother’s Day has been a federally recognized holiday since President Wilson signed it into proclamation in 1914, thanks to the tireless efforts of one Anna Jarvis. It was thanks to her that every U.S. state had local celebrations by 1911, and that Congress received a proposal to officially recognize the day in 1908. It was thanks to the Congressmen’s sense of humor and their jokes that they would also have to make a “mother-in-law’s day” that it took another six years. And then yet another six years later, the marketing arrived.

Jarvis was furious when Hallmark began selling cards for the day in the 1920s, believing that they were only exploiting the holiday for profit and that people should write handwritten letters expressing their love and gratitude instead of buying pre-made cards.

I, being a heathen who didn’t know any of this until I started researching, went card shopping a few days ago. Looking at the racks of mass-produced pastel paper sheets definitely made me think that Jarvis had a point — more so than ever, these days.

There was some variety among the cards I saw, but for the most part, they seemed to be marketed to a very particular idea of a family, or motherhood.

And you won’t just find that idea, or that image, in greeting cards. Take most television shows, or other media, or especially advertisements. Everything you see these days that’s family-oriented seems to be marketed to one certain kind of perfect, consumerist, middle-class, nuclear family that may or may not actually exist.

Which when you stop to consider it is pretty screwed up. Families have more variety than that. People have more variety than that. I realize that the ads are part of the sell, that the sizzle is being marketed right along with the steak, but what never seems to get considered is that along with all of these ideal family projections, there’s a very subtle, persistent message going on.

If you and your family don’t look like this, there’s something wrong with you.

Back to Mother’s Day — there are people who have lost their mothers. There are people who never knew their mothers, and don’t want to. There are people with two mothers or two fathers, not to mention single mothers and fathers everywhere you look. There are even some people who are much better off for not speaking to their mothers, and would rather not have the day shoved in their face.

Mother’s Day isn’t always the picture-perfect date Hallmark would like you to buy. But the place and effort it was born from are really something admirable.

So a happy Mother’s Day, to everyone who wants it.