The Word the Language Refuses to Lose
The word “mother” is older than Vermont, older than English, and older than most of the institutions now trying to write around it. It comes through Middle English moder and Old English mōdor, from a much older Indo-European family of words that also gave the world Latin mater, Greek mētēr, German Mutter, and related forms across languages. Its basic meaning has remained stubbornly plain: a female parent, a woman in relation to her child.
That linguistic durability is part of the point. “Mother” is not an obscure technical term. It is not a bureaucratic classification. It is one of the oldest human words for one of the oldest human facts: the person who bore, birthed, raised, protected, fed, buried pride, carried worry, and held the line when nobody else was watching.
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How Mother’s Day Became a National Holiday
Mother’s Day, at least in its American form, has its own history. Anna Jarvis is credited with launching the campaign that led to the national holiday, beginning with commemorations in 1908 in honor of her own mother. President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation on May 9, 1914, calling on Americans to publicly express reverence for mothers through the celebration of Mother’s Day. The Library of Congress notes the holiday’s connection to Jarvis and to the carnation, distributed at one of the early commemorations honoring Jarvis’s mother.
The holiday was not originally designed as a generic greeting-card weekend. In fact, Jarvis later opposed the commercialization of the day she helped create. History.com notes that she campaigned against what she saw as the exploitation of Mother’s Day by florists, card companies, and others who turned private gratitude into public commerce.
Vermont Recognized Plenty in 2026
More than a century later, Vermont’s Legislature appears perfectly capable of recognizing many things. In 2026, the General Assembly recognized Black Maternal Health Week, Mental Health Awareness Month, Vermont Golf Day, National Tennis Month, Tourism Economy Day, Manufacturing Day, and other special days, weeks, months, people, teams, businesses, anniversaries, and causes. It also formally congratulated Terese Black on being named the 2026 Vermont Mother of the Year.
A Fair Call on Vermont’s Mother of the Year
That Mother of the Year resolution deserves fair treatment. H.C.R. 259 congratulated Black, a Rutland County woman, mother of two children and a “bonus” stepchild, describing her as “a gifted mother, generous to people from all walks of life, and a loving friend to many in the community.” The resolution also cited her work as a teacher, her 16 years as director of Rutland Dismas House, and her community and faith-based service.
On May 8, the House read that resolution aloud. Rep. Rob North of Georgia then welcomed Black to the chamber and noted that American Mothers Inc. has honored mothers since 1935 and serves as the official sponsor of Mother’s Day in the United States. According to the House session transcript, North said the organization provides a voice for the 85 million women in the country who are mothers.
That matters. The Legislature did not erase motherhood entirely. It honored one Vermont mother, and that honor was appropriate.
But Mother’s Day Itself Got Something Smaller
But the same record also shows something else. Based on the material reviewed, Mother’s Day itself does not appear to have received its own standalone House or Senate concurrent resolution. That is not because the State House lacked time for ceremonial recognition. It found time for many such recognitions. Mother’s Day, as a holiday, appears to have received something much smaller: a brief, personal floor remark near adjournment.
That remark came from the member from Derby. The transcript identifies him by town, and the current House member from Derby is Rep. Richard Nelson ( R – Orleans-1 ).
Nelson’s remarks were short and human. He said the coming Sunday was important to him not only because of his mother, but also because of his stepmother, “who had to put up” with him from age 13 onward. He then wished “all the mothers and stepmothers in the body a very happy Mother’s Day.”
That was the plainest Mother’s Day recognition in the House session transcript.
In Law, Mothers Become ‘Birthing Individuals’
The contrast becomes sharper when compared with Vermont’s recent maternal-health language. In 2025, Vermont enacted Act 50, relating to certification of community-based perinatal doulas and Medicaid coverage for doula services. That law defines a doula as someone who provides support and services to “birthing individuals before, during, and after labor and childbirth.” It uses the same phrase again in the Medicaid reimbursement section.
That is not the same phrase as “mother.” It is not even “woman.” It is “birthing individuals,” a sex-neutral bureaucratic construction that turns the person at the center of pregnancy and childbirth into a function.
Even Black Maternal Health Week Used Maternal Language
The Legislature’s 2026 Black Maternal Health Week resolution, H.C.R. 244, did not use that phrase. It recognized April 11–17, 2026, as Black Maternal Health Week in Vermont and used the language of “Black mothers” and “Black mamas.” The resolution cited the Black Mamas Matter Alliance’s mission to center the voices, leadership, and lived experiences of Black mothers.
The Bureaucratic Word and the Human Word
Yet in the broader policy machinery, the trend is clear enough: motherhood is often ceremonially safe, but bureaucratically unstable. The state can honor a Mother of the Year. It can pass a Black Maternal Health Week resolution. A Derby representative can rise and say something normal about his mother and stepmother. But in statutory maternal-health policy, the mother becomes a “birthing individual.”
That shift is not merely semantic. Language tells citizens what their government sees. “Mother” sees a relationship. “Birthing individual” sees a process. “Mother” carries history, sacrifice, duty, grief, affection, and authority. “Birthing individual” sounds like something produced by a committee after everyone agreed to avoid the obvious word.
So a hat tip is due to Rep. Nelson of Derby for saying plainly what the institution largely left to one resolution about one honoree and one closing announcement before adjournment.
Happy Mother’s Day
And to all mothers out there: Happy Mother’s Day. To the women who gave birth, and to the women who stepped up, stayed up, cleaned up, showed up, and raised children they did not have to raise — the word is still mother. And it still means something.
Dave Soulia | FYIVT
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