When I was younger, Mother’s Day was definitely not my favorite day.

Without a mother figure around it, was hard to have a happy mindset when everyone around me was  hanging out with their mothers or posting pictures of them on social media. I just sat at home.

Celebrating Mother’s Day is not easy for a lot of people, and that’s okay. People need to acknowledge that, for a variety of reasons, not everyone has a mother figure in their life. By not assuming people have a perfect nuclear family at home is a step in the right direction.

People without a mother and or father figure shouldn’t feel ashamed about not celebrating those two holidays.

Having my dad by my side on Mother’s Day helped me out a lot as a kid because we were able to have fun and joke around with each other, even if it was a hard day. Now being older I now know that it is 100 percent okay to not celebrate Mother’s Day.

I made the decision to tell my birth-giver that I don’t want her in my life and that she lost the chance to be in it and I have never felt better since. My birth giver caused me so much anxiety and now I still have anxiety but my life has been a lot better with out her.

Even now having a mother figure around, she didn’t push me to celebrate Mother’s Day. All we did a few Sundays ago was relaxed, which was nice.

If you don’t have a mother and or father figure in your life — right now or ever — don’t push yourself to be ashamed about something you can’t control. If you don’t feel comfortable with Mother’s and Father’s Day, don’t force yourself to celebrate them just because everyone around you is.