By now I am sure you have all seen or heard of this ad. It is said to be the “worst ad ever” and such.
Well as a lost mom (three times over) I thought I would comment on it. I personally thought it was a great ad to do what they say they were trying to do, start a conversation. Many were talking about it for days afterwards, including me.
It was great because as a lost mom you do feel invisible (another Nationwide ad). When you loose a loved one, you often want to talk about that person, however when you are a lost mom (or dad) society tells you can’t do that. You get the feeling that EVERYONE just wants you to forget about the child and “move on”. It makes them uncomfortable to talk about, think about or even sense it. I think because they feel like it could happen to them. Sometimes that is the case, but sometimes it isn’t. So it makes lost parents live in closets. Yes they may have more children, but they are ALWAYS going to be a lost parent. No child can ever replace the one(s) they lost.
In my own journey I know I was shocked to learn that there were 4 lost babies/children in my family. Some I knew of before I my children and a couple I didn’t. It wasn’t talked about. The family swept it under the rug. Maybe on purpose, maybe not. However the outcome was the same. What is more amazing is when I started connecting with other lost moms on the internet, there wasn’t a 1 that didn’t want to talk about the life their child had. Even if that life was just the pregnancy if they had a still born. They were proud of their child. They grieved their loss, but they remembered their life.
I am happy that Nationwide put up this ad. I hope no one reading this has to endure the pain of a lost child, however if you know other parents that have lost children, let them know when you are thinking about their child(ren). I guarantee that you will make their week. After all the worst fear any parent of a lost child has is that their child is forgotten. Because, at least for me, that means that the child’s life didn’t matter. And all lives matter. “A person is a person no matter how small!”