Americans: Tired of Sending Mother's Day Cards That Say "Mum"? Paperchase Can Solve That.

So I was browsing the giant Paperchase near Tottenham Court Road last night (3 floors of stationery goodness, including leather goods and accessories by Comme des Garcons - ohhhhhhh, yes) and - being the over-prepared person that I am - decided to stock up on Mother's Day cards. I was even thoughtful enough to pick one up for John, since I knew he probably wouldn't have time to get one. Smug face.

And then I saw these, which stopped me in my tracks:

MOM CARDS. The holy grail of Mother's Day cards in the UK: cards that say "mom", rather than "mum". Jackpot. You see, this year, Mother's Day in the UK is on March 10th - Mother's Day in the US is May 12th. And since it feels wrong not to recognize my mother's accomplishment in raising such a wonderful, brilliant daughter (ahem) on both days, I send her a card on each Mother's Day, every year since I've lived here. So that's going on 12 cards now. Not bad, right?

The thing is, my mom will always be my mom. Not my "mum", my "mom". John's mum is his "mum", my mom is "mom" (and I don't care where my child grows up, he/she WILL call me "mommy". I cringe at "mummy"). End of. If my kid makes me a "HaPpie MoTHeR's DaY to the BEST mUM" card, I'll a) feel like a failure as a mother in my child's inability to spell "happy" correctly and b) tear it up and serve it to him/her for dinner. No. Not really. But still ...

Back to Paperchase. The possibilities were endless; how could I possibly choose? Luckily, I was able to settle for two, rather than one. 

With this "mom" vernacular hijacking of the Mother's Day card section in Paperchase, one thing became clear: Americans are taking over. Muahahaha. I totally did an inner fist pump, btw.