Protect Your Loved Ones: Why Insurance Matters This Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day will take place on May 12, 2024, as families throughout the United States honor mothers, wives and mothers-in-law who impact their lives. In addition to celebrating your mother, you can take this opportunity to make sure she has the right homeowners insurance, life insurance and health insurance coverage to match her needs.

Keep reading to learn about the history of the holiday and to see many ideas and tips regarding how to celebrate Mother’s Day with the best mom in the world.

Key Takeaways Anna Jarvis invented Mother’s Day in 1908 and it became a national holiday observed every May beginning in 1914. If you want to buy a ring or necklace for your mom or wife this Mother’s Day, you may want to make sure she has scheduled personal property coverage or standalone jewelry insurance so her valuables will be adequately covered. You are allowed to take out a life insurance policy on your mother as long as she agrees to let you do it and you can prove that her death would financially impact you. Health insurance companies must allow you to add a dependent mother to your health plan in California, while you can buy your mother her own health plan or enroll her in Medicare in other states.

What Is Mother’s Day?

Mother’s Day is a national holiday recognized on the second Sunday of May each year in the United States. It is primarily an opportunity for children to celebrate their own mothers but it has also become a time for individuals to celebrate all of the mothers who play an important role in their lives and in their communities regardless of whether those women are their own mothers.

Why Do We Celebrate Mother’s Day?

Mother’s Day as it exists in the United States today was the brainchild of West Virginia native Anna Jarvis, the daughter of Civil War era activist Ann Reeves Jarvis. Under her direction, the first Mother’s Day took place on May 10, 1908, three years after her mother died. On that day, Anna Jarvis organized two Mother’s Day church services in honor of her mother’s death: one at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia, and another at the Wanamaker Store Auditorium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.^[1]

Jarvis pushed for the new holiday to be widely recognized throughout the country and, by 1911, Mother’s Day was informally celebrated in every state. In 1914, Mother’s Day was officially declared a national holiday thanks to a Mother’s Day proclamation released by President Woodrow Wilson.^[1]

Mother’s Day History

While the current American celebration of Mother’s Day is a relatively modern invention, there are various examples of cultures celebrating motherhood throughout history. For example, Greeks and Romans hosted an important festival in ancient times to honor the goddess Cybele, also known as the Great Mother of the Gods.^[2]

Meanwhile, English people began to celebrate a holiday known as Mothering Sunday during the 1500s. It started as a predominantly religious festivity that involved individuals returning to their “mother church,” which could refer to the church they had grown up attending or the nearest cathedral to their current home. However, the holiday eventually morphed into an occasion to spend time with family and celebrate mothers.^[3]

How To Celebrate Mom on Mother’s Day

There are various ways you can honor your mom and help her to have a happy Mother’s Day whether it’s giving her gifts that will make her smile or going out of your way to make her life easier. Common examples of Mother’s Day gifts include flowers, chocolates and necklaces but you should be sure to shop for whatever present is most likely to match your mom’s unique tastes.

In addition, you could treat Mom by preparing a meal for her or taking her out to a nice restaurant. The mother is the primary cook in 80% of American households consisting of two parents and at least one child under the age of 18, so chances are most moms would benefit from getting a day off from cooking.^[4]

Of course, perhaps the best and simplest way to celebrate Mother’s Day is for you and your kids to spend time with your mother.

Mother’s Day founder Anna Jarvis notably opposed the commercialization of Mother’s Day aggressively, so honoring the original spirit of the holiday may mean prioritizing quality time with your mom or grandma over any sort of gift giving.^[1]

Keep Mom Safe With Insurance

There are multiple insurance considerations you ought to start thinking about as Mother’s Day approaches. If you plan on buying customized jewelry for your mom or honorary mother figure, you may also want to purchase a scheduled personal property coverage endorsement for her homeowners policy or separate jewelry insurance since basic home insurance policies often enforce sublimits for valuables. For example, some policies only pay out up to $1,000 for claims involving stolen jewelry regardless of how valuable the stolen jewelry actually is.^[5]

Meanwhile, if your mom is interested in life insurance but hasn’t purchased a policy for herself yet, she’ll likely appreciate it if you take out a life insurance policy on her behalf and pay the premiums for her. In general, you can buy life insurance for a parent as long as you have their consent and can demonstrate insurable interest, which means that their death would have a financial impact on you.^[6]

Finally, take the time to ask your mother about her health insurance needs. If your mother is your dependent, you may be able to add her to your health insurance in California.[7] While this may not be an option elsewhere in the country, you can still shop for a Marketplace health plan for your mother or help her sign up for Medicare if she’s over the age of 65.