Gamma Phi Beta Mother's pin
 

Thanks for posting the picture, bejazd. I love it, too! It looks really great with our badge (as I mentioned in previous post, my mom wears hers with her Gamma Phi badge).

Alpha Phi's from HJGreek
 

Naturally I don't know the ins and outs of Pi Phi's rules, but I can think of some possibilities:

Mother:
1. pregnancy
2. labor
3. delivery
(OR: 1, 2, and 3: emotional, financial and legal complexities of adoption)
4. infant care
5. "terrible twos"
6. years of doctor's appointments, parent-teacher conferences, encouragement and transportation for activities, age-appropriate versions of "The Talk" over the years
7. the teen years

New Member (formerly Pledge):
1. went through formal recruitment or COB

So maybe letting a mother wear that beta isn't so bad (but as I say, what do I know?)

Much more seriously: I hope GCers will remember this thread in the fall when -- if history's any guide -- the usual new batch of comments, questions, and thinly-veiled putdowns about who can / can't wear letters and why, etc., begins to show up .

Sounds like a good set of reasons to me!

I'm confused- I thought the Pi Phi new member pin has a Beta on it?

It does and I've never heard that NMs can't wear the Greek Beta, just Pi and Phi. We weren't allowed to wear any of the 3 Greek letters as pledges, although dakareng says that now NMs can wear letters. I wonder how the Beta rumor got started?

And exlurker, those ought to be reasons for moms to get to do anything they want!

It does - which is why, I'm sure, it is okay for the mom to wear!

Yep, it does.

What SoCalGirl was talking about (I think), however, is a national Pi Phi rule (or custom -- and apparently there isn't one) that new members can't wear the full set of three Greek letters (Pi Beta Phi). This usually comes up in discussions about t-shirts, hoodies, caps, and so on.

Instead, or so the legend / rumor goes (or went), NMs wear "Pi Phi." Of course they can wear their new member pin.

I kiddingly said what I did about mothers getting to wear the beta because their mother's pin has all three Greek letters on it, not just the pi and the phi.

I hope I haven't made things even cloudier. Usually I zone out fairly fast on the annual posts about letters and new members. Especially -- with all due respect -- when they get into campus intricacies like the Big Deal Difference between printed, embroidered, or stitched-on letters.

I really like these ^^^. I especially like them b/c they say mom on it. Some of the others, although very pretty, could be confusing to outsiders and would lead them to beileve that they are members of that organization. I know if I saw a woman with some of those pins I would assume she were greek.

I gave my mom a Pi Phi mother's pin in the late seventies. My mom had never gone to college and I distinctly remember her being very excited about it when I gave it to her. It was as you described it, and there was a pearl in the shaft of the arrowhead. I have not seen it for many years, but my mom is still alive & I'll bet that she still has it somewhere. Now I have to raid her drawers and jewelry boxes to see where it is. Mothers play such an important part in our lives, and I wanted to honor her. Mother's pins are a great, sentimental tradition that I think very definitely has a part in Greek tradition. After all, most GLO's have "auxiliary" pins - chapter pins, sweetheart pins, scholarship pins, officer pins, & other types of recognition pins. I can also think of legacy pins, 25 & 50 year member pins, etc. It's nice to know that so many GLO's have mother's pins so we can all honor our mothers!

I gave my mom a Pi Phi mother's pin in the late seventies. My mom had never gone to college and I distinctly remember her being very excited about it when I gave it to her. It was as you described it, and there was a pearl in the shaft of the arrowhead. I have not seen it for many years, but my mom is still alive & I'll bet that she still has it somewhere. Now I have to raid her drawers and jewelry boxes to see where it is. Mothers play such an important part in our lives, and I wanted to honor her. Mother's pins are a great, sentimental tradition that I think very definitely has a part in Greek tradition. After all, most GLO's have "auxiliary" pins - chapter pins, sweetheart pins, scholarship pins, officer pins, & other types of recognition pins. I can also think of legacy pins, 25 & 50 year member pins, etc. It's nice to know that so many GLO's have mother's pins so we can all honor our mothers!

I have no idea if AXO has a mother's pin.

Alpha Chi Omega's Mother's Pin:

http://www.hjgreek.com/assets/images...large/6804.jpg

Pretty :)