In years past I have gotten all mushy when talking about the wonderfulness of moms. I still am thankful for my very own and for Jennie, mother for Shamus and Sean. The boys are very lucky they have Jennie to balance out the goofiness I bring to the parenting table.
That said, I figured 2007 would be a non-sappy year. Just the cold hard facts, ma’am. So, without further eloquence . . .
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While moms have held a special place in the hearts of all who ever were, there was a time when there was no ‘Mother’s Day.? According to my sources, the driving force behind Mother’s Day was Anna Jarvis. Anna must have loved her dear old mom, ‘cuz she organized observances in Grafton, W.Va., and Philadelphia on May 10, 1908. That was 99 years ago.
While the annual celebration spread around the country, Jarvis began lobbying politicians to set aside a day to honor mothers. She finally succeeded in 1914, when Congress designated the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.
And, the rest is history.
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The next bit o? information I have was e-mailed to me by folks from the United States Census Bureau. How many mothers are there across our fruited plains? The latest numbers (2001) estimate there are 80.5 million moms in the U.S. — 55 percent of them are between the ages of (gulp) 15- and 44-years-old.
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In 1976 the percentage of women, between the ages of 40 and 44, who were moms was 90 percent. In 2001, that percentage dropped to 81 percent.
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How many kids are U.S. moms having these days? According the government, the average is 2.1. (Nothing personal, but I’d hate to be the .1 kid.) The state that tops the nation in the average number of births per woman is not Arkansas — it is Utah at 2.5. Rhode Island, Vermont, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia have the lowest average number, at 1.7 births per mom.
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U.S. moms gave birth to 4.1 million kids in 2005. Of this number, 414,406 were to teens 15 to 19, and 111,190 to moms 40 or older.
The average age for a woman’s first birthing experience in 2004 was 25.2 years old.
First births represent 40% of women’s birth totals. 32 percent are second-born; 17 percent, third; and 11 percent, fourth or more.
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Get this — there were 35,578 births in 2004 that did not occur in hospitals.
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Hey, prospective moms — the odds of you delivering twins here in the good ol? U.S. of A, are 1in 31.Your odds of delivering other multiple births are approximately 1 in 565.
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Woman must like the fall colors, because July (nine months later) is the most popular month in which to have a baby, with 359,426 births taking place that month in 2004.
The most popular day of the week to have a baby is Tuesday. There were 13,045 births on Tuesdays during 2004.
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Jacob and Emily were the most popular baby names for boys and girls, respectively, in 2005.
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Here’s a number for you: 21,667.
It’s not a random number, it is the number of florist businesses there were in the U.S. in 2004. And, the 109,915 floral shop employees will be especially busy this week making arrangements for moms and grandmoms nationwide. Did you know the flowers bought for mom have a good chance of having been grown in California? A survey of 36 states showed California was the leading provider of cut flowers in 2005, accounting for 73 percent of domestic flower production ($289 million out of $397 million).
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And lastly, 61 percent and 81 percent of children younger than 6 living with married parents, eat breakfast and dinner, respectively, with their mother every day. The corresponding percentages who eat with their father were 30 percent and 64 percent.
Just another reason why moms rule. So, don’t forget to call, hug and gush over your mother — chances are she deserves it.
Happy Mother’s Day!
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