Mother's Day eCard

It depends on the country. In the UK and Ireland it falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent, which lands in March and moves each year with Easter. In the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries it is the second Sunday in May.

If you are sending across borders, use the recipient's date rather than your own.

Write one specific thing you are grateful for rather than a general thank you. Something she did that you only understood later, a sacrifice you have since recognised, a habit of hers you have caught yourself repeating.

Those details are what make the card hers. Plain language works better than anything flowery.

Name the relationship as it actually is rather than borrowing the word mother if it does not fit. Acknowledging what they specifically chose to do, that they stepped in, stayed, or raised you without having to, is more powerful than any title.

People in these roles often go unthanked precisely because the standard card does not fit them.

Write only what is true, and keep it short. A card does not have to claim more than you feel.

A brief, honest message thanking her for something specific you genuinely are grateful for beats both a false effusive card and nothing at all. You are allowed to set the temperature.

Acknowledge the day rather than avoiding it. Mother's Day is one of the hardest days of the year for people who have lost their mother, and most find the silence worse than a message.

Saying you are thinking of them and naming their mother is usually welcome. Use a sympathy card or a thinking of you card rather than a Mother's Day one.

Yes. Sign it from all of you at the sign-off step and share the one link. A card from several siblings tends to mean more than several separate ones.

A recorded message with everyone's voices on it, grandchildren included, is usually the part she replays.