Maria Shriver Gives You Another Reason to Love Your Mom (VIDEO)
Mother’s Day is May 12, and so the 85 million moms currently living in the U.S. can expect to be showered with the requisite mom-gifts, like chocolates, cards and flowers. In fact, estimates this year show that Americans plan on spending over $17 billion demonstrating to our mothers exactly how much they mean to us.
But for Maria Shriver, the holiday isn’t about getting gifts, but is instead about sharing her own mother’s story in the hopes that it will inspire others.
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who passed away in 2009, was the founder of the Special Olympics and a lifetime activist who championed the rights of the physically and intellectually disabled.
A woman who lived by her own standards—wearing men’s pants, smoking cigars and playing tackle football—Kennedy Shriver was a living example that women who raise children need not fit into a stereotyped mold in order to be successful at it.
She passed on to her daughter the importance not only of motherhood, but the importance of acknowledging the role, so that more women feel empowered in it.
The video, produced by P&G, is also a fundraising opportunity for the Special Olympics. P&G will donate $1 to the Special Olympics every time the video is shared from their Facebook page.
Maria’s Shriver’s maverick mother may sound like too much to live up to, but this video illustrates how profoundly human she was and how simple her aim—to create a human being with a sense of self-esteem and possibility.
To all the women worldwide doing that right now, we thank you.
What else should we be doing to support mothers in this country? Let us know in the Comments.
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A Bay Area native, Andri Antoniades previously worked as a fashion industry journalist and medical writer. In addition to reporting the weekend news on TakePart, she volunteers as a webeditor for locally-based nonprofits and works as a freelance feature writer for TimeOutLA.com. Email Andri | @andritweets | TakePart.com
