Whoopi Goldberg's Mother of a Gaffe: A Man Invented Mother's Day?

Mother's Day was invented by Anna Jarvis, a West Virginian who, from 1907 to 1914 devoted considerable energy to establishing state and national holidays marking Mother's Day. Jarvis's inspiration, of course, was her deep devotion to her late mother.

But don't tell Whoopi Goldberg that. [audio for download here]

"I feel like Mother's Day is a man's holiday. You know, because it was put together, a woman didn't put together Mother's Day. A woman put together several other holidays but Mother's Day was not one of them," the moderator of ABC's "The View"  insisted on the May 8 program.

The faulty assertion came during a chat with Alyse Myers, author of "Who Do You Think You Are?", which chronicles her strained relationship with her mother. 

After insisting that a man invented Mother's Day, Goldberg suggested that men typically have more pleasant relationships with their mothers than women do:

GOLDBERG: I think that guys have a different relationship to their parents, to their mothers. Men have a different relationship to their mothers than girls do.

MYERS: I totally agree. As a matter of fact, because of my lousy relationship with my mother, I was afraid to have a daughter. And I have a daughter, and thank God, I can't imagine-

ELISABETH HASSELBECK: Does she love you?

MYERS: She says she does.

[audience laughter]