I really hope that every mum, mummy and mother out there had a lovely day last Sunday.

For me, it was a day of indifference, and not just because I’m not a mother and didn’t get any presents.

What I did get, was inundated with social media posts asking me where the apostrophe should go in the name of this ‘holiday’ we celebrate in March each year – Mother’s Day?  Mothers’ Day??  Mothers Day???

Honestly? I don’t care.  I know that in my line of work I should care, but it seems that every professional writer and part-time grammar pedant out there hold contrasting views on this punctuation hot-potato anyway, and personally, I feel you could reasonably justify each variation if you really cared to give it enough thought.

Every year on this Hallmark occasion, friends and clients are always shocked at me for a) being indifferent to a grammar-related topic, and b) not voicing an opinion either way for a change, but honestly, there are worse grammar crimes out there.

It is true, however, that incorrectly utilised apostrophes are top of that list.  The worst case was some years back in my experience as an English teacher, when I noticed that even GCSE students were following an annoying trend of throwing an apostrophe into every word that ended in an ‘s’, or more specifically, every word that signified a plural, eg: “The clown tripped over his own shoe’s“.  This really irritated me, and so since then, I have always promoted the following mantra: “If in doubt, leave it out“.  Yes, that’s right, I would rather see none of this type of punctuation at all than witness it thrown around with reckless abandon.

This was my ultimate standpoint on Sunday.  There are so many justifications and alleged back-stories for accepting any grammatical version of the name that it’s difficult for me to care which one is used.  In these scenarios, I always advise that you go with your preference, or if you want to show the hallmarks of a truly good writer, change the word or phrase altogether!  Best wishes for Mothering Sunday!

If anyone takes issue with this post, we can argue it all again in June for Father’s/Fathers’/Fathers Day.

Have a lovely possessive or plural day of your choosing!