Mother Knows Best: A Message for the Moms of Disney World

Mother’s Day is May 9th, 2021!

A Disney Mother’s Day is often celebrated with a day in the parks. Families eat with mom at Disney Springs or share specialty desserts, enjoying this beautiful day together.

At home, we can buy mom a special Disney item and enjoy a Disney-themed day. Disney+ offers movies where you can find a small handful of fictional moms like Kanga, Eudora, Perdita, and Helen Parr.

I struggle, however, to find quality moms in Disney movies because they are frequently characters who are dead, absent, or depicted as unkind, malicious or abusive. Disney rarely creates mom characters who are authentic, human and present.

In the real world, they are easy to find because we’re searching for true, actual mothers not found on Disney screens, but in the Disney parks; they are you. Mother knows best…

Renee Beauregard Lute’s article, “Devices in the Disney Parks: the Kids are Alright” goes beyond the glares directed toward mothers who offer their children devices in the parks. It is the core of how mothers are judged at a universal level for their parenting. Mother knows best. You know best.

The most valuable way to celebrate a Disney Mother’s Day is treating all mothers on a daily basis with respect and support in the parks. Judgment should have no place in our family parks. Moms are not robots, we are not perfect, and we are not Mary Poppins. Mary was not a mom! She blew in and out like the wind; she didn’t stay. “Practically Perfect” is an unattainable Hollywood fallacy, a fantasy. Mother knows best, not Mary.

Moms are in Disney fishbowls when they step foot on property, their parenting skills on public display. Let’s treat moms with empathy and show a nod of encouragement in more difficult times in the parks, not looks of shaming, and sometimes even publicly humiliation, on social media.

Fellow moms with small children, those who spend time in Disney parks, those mothers of special needs children who advocate for their children’s rights and needs, moms who juggle work and play, and every mom who has parented through Zoom school and their child’s pandemic anxiety, take a bow and enjoy your day. Do not explain why you gave your child a device in the parks, do not defend your parenting skills to those who judge, because you, mother, you, know best.

You are amazing, you are real, you are human; be proud of the work you do as you parent in moments of triumph and challenge. Go to those parks and be yourselves, because you are awesome! Happy Mother’s Day!

Feature article: Photo by Jon Flobrant on Unsplash