This Sunday is Mother’s Day. I know because there are thousands of colorful cards crowding the shelves at every drugstore and supermarket I enter, and ads for Mother’s Day brunch leaping off the pages of every newspaper. 

There are also television commercials constantly telling us what the mothers in our lives would like to receive as gifts. There is jewelry, clothing, cars and personal items which Moms are more than worthy of receiving, given all they do for the rest of us.

I don’t know who the marketing agent is for the United Womanhood of Mothers, or whatever it is they call the organization that secretly unites all moms. But whoever they are, they definitely earn their keep. In our world today, comparing Mother’s Day to Father’s Day is like comparing Christmas to Ground Hog Day. Advantage – Moms.

If you don’t believe me, just try finding a Father’s Day brunch next month. You’d have an easier time finding a steak fry at the Vatican during Lent. And gifts? Well, let’s just say the rules for Mother’s Day gifts are completely and totally different from the ones regulating the day set aside for dads.

On Father’s Day, it is perfectly acceptable to buy the dad in your life a power tool or a lawnmower. But woe to the poor idiotic male who decides to give his wife a vacuum cleaner or household appliance for Mother’s Day. You might as well buy a couch instead, and prepare to sleep on it for the next month or so.

I once got a toilet seat from my wife as a Father’s Day present. Now granted, I have not always chosen wisely when it comes to giving my lovely wife gifts. But that toilet seat has gone down in Father’s Day lore as an example of what we downtrodden men have had to endure over the years.

Sadly, no one cares. It’s simply the way it is, and must be accepted. To complain about it for very long is akin to bemoaning the foam on your beer. If you want the good stuff, you put up with the foam.

Moms are simply smarter than we men, and they know how to work the system. It must be why we love them so much. Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there.  I have to admire your style.

Bill Gouveia is a local columnist and is married to the world’s greatest Mom.  He can be reached at aninsidelook@aol.com.