Many holidays have found me confused, not about the spirit of the day or its merit, but rather… how to spell it. (I swear I’ve seen “Presidents’ Day about six different ways.)

Mother’s Day? No such problem.

Seems as though the holiday’s founder (that would be the mother of Mother’s Day) foresaw this potential confusion and in fact codified the spelling! Ms. Anna Jarvis trademarked the phrase “Second Sunday in May, Mother’s Day, Anna Jarvis, Founder,” in 1912. (The holiday was celebrated with increasing formality for nearly a decade before President Wilson proclaimed it formally in 1914.) Ms. Jarvis specifically noted that “Mother’s” should “be a singular possessive, for each family to honor its own mother, not a plural possessive commemorating all mothers in the world.”

If only all government orders were so clear.