KUALA LUMPUR - Aaini Abdul Majid had to sacrifice a lot of time and money to care for her five children.

With only a clerk's pay, she had to work while leaving her children at home with her maid.

"I had a painful experience with that maid when I was informed by a neighbour that two of my kids, who were very young then, had been locked inside the house. They were crying all day as they were alone.

"I was later told that my maid went outside with her friends," she said of the incident, which happened in the 1980s.

Aaini, whose 63-year-old husband is a retiree, said she was lucky when her company set up a nursery several years later.

"My older children were good students. One of them ended up as an accountant, another is a businessman, while the rest are studying at school," she added.

"All the troubles have paid off, but I do hope my children will never have to go through this when they become parents," she said when met outside the Sogo shopping complex here yesterday.

Aaini was among many mothers who received flowers, cupcakes and balloons courtesy of the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry for Mothers Day.

National Population and Family Development Board Malaysia acting director-general Dr Anjli Panalal K. Doshi said the event was part of a nationwide celebration to honour women, with the year's theme being Respek Wanita (Respect Women).

She added that similar programmes were also held nationwide and more programmes for women would be organised in the next two months.

Women shoppers and passers-by were surprised when volunteers gave them the items.

Administrative clerk Marjizawati Othman, 35, her husband Ahmad Yusop Kamis, 36, and their daughter Marsya Umairah, 11, were dressed in candy pink polo shirts.

The couple said they often wore matching colours on family outings for a "feeling of togetherness".