Kay’s mom sent us a Valentine’s Day card, which was nice. While the thought was nice, I was a bit concerned with the copy on the card. It was a flowery, frilly card with that script font you see on wedding invitations, and it read on the front precisely as follows:
Do you see the problem? Why does the word “son” have quotation marks around it? Does it not mean I’m part of the family? Is there a special section of a Hallmark store devoted to parents that might not be completely sure they accept someone into the family? Kay says to take the quotes out insinuates that perhaps a mother’s offspring have married each other. I’m sure there are heated debates down at Hallmark HQ over this, but as a recipient of their fine cards, I can’t get over how a couple punctuation marks change a message entirely. To wit:
I like sauerkraut.
I “like” sauerkraut.
See the difference? I’m probably reading too much into it though. It was a nice gesture and a nice card, and I don’t think Kay’s mom purposely picked it based on any weird implied message.
