He invites everyone to fill cyberspace with messages of love for mothers. These may come in the form of pictures, videos, quotations, or even personal experiences.
Many people may not know this but Mother’s Day in the Philippines used to be celebrated in December ever since the American colonial period with the then Bureau of Education in charge of the celebration. But since May is school break here, it was decided to hold Mother’s Day in December instead. The I Love Mom Movement was founded in 1980 to make the Philippines celebrate this special day the same day as it is celebrated in most parts of the globe. It was not simply because he wanted to copy how the Americans were celebrating the said holiday but because he saw that there were many Filipino mothers working overseas who felt left out when Mother’s Day was celebrated.
The founder of the movement always had a soft spot for mothers because of how he witnessed the proverbial mother’s love from his own mother, his wife, his sisters and countless others. He also cites other reasons why he started this movement. One is that as a young human resource manager of the family business he noticed that employees that were problematic and were not productive had family-related issues particularly communication gap between parents and children. He believed that this can be addressed by creating an opportunity to bridge this communication gap, hence the I Love Mom Movement.
He also recalled an instance, while attending a spiritual retreat, of one attendee who, during the sharing portion, wept profusely as he lamented how he can no longer express his love to his mother who had already passed. “Very often, it is easy for us to take for granted the people who are always there for us and these are our mothers,” He said. “That is why we started this movement so that we will always remember to keep rekindling our love for our mothers.”
Thankfully, Mr. Lim found an ally in the late Jaime Cardinal Sin, whom he approached to seek advice on the matter. During the meeting the movement’s founder noticed that the late cardinal’s desk was covered with books about Mary, which he found fortuitous because Cardinal Sin agreed that Mother’s Day should be celebrated in May because it is also the month of Mary or MOM. Since then the movement has grown to a community of about 50,000.
“I know that the pandemic has made the celebration of Mother’s Day more difficult. It was an accepted fact that many mothers, who are working overseas, are not able to be with their loved ones during Mother’s Day. But because of the lockdown, even us, who are not separated by oceans cannot still be together with our mothers,” He said. “I hope that we will continue to find creative ways to honor our mothers because it was from them that we first experienced how to be loved unconditionally.”
He reiterates the invitation to fill cyberspace with messages of love for mothers, which may come in the form of pictures, videos, quotations, or even personal experiences which people can post in their social media platforms. To those who want to share messages, photos and videos to the I Love Mom Movement, their social media sites are: https://www.facebook.com/