President Obama offered a simple reminder to fathers and children across the country today as they prepare to honor their mothers this weekend.

"Let me just start off with a public service announcement to dads, partners, kids of America: Sunday is Mother's Day," Obama said at an event in the East Room of the White House Friday.

"You should not forget. You can't go wrong with flowers, a homemade card … giving mom some relief, some quiet time. That is appreciated, so it's a day when we put moms first."

"Moms take care of us," he said as a baby cried in the audience. "Yes, see? Case in point. Sick kids, aging parents, grumpy husbands."

With more than a dozen mothers assembled on stage behind him, the president pegged the Affordable Care Act to Mother's Day by explaining how it is critical that mothers have access to affordable health care for themselves and their families.

"Moms so often put themselves last; so often they put everything else before themselves, and that's particularly true when it comes to things like health care," Obama said.

"There are lots of moms out there who often go without the care that they need, or the checkups they know they should get, because they're worrying that co-pay has to go to gas or groceries or the new soccer uniform instead. Or worse, they know the unfairness of being charged more for their health care just because they're a woman, or the stress of trying to manage a family budget when health care costs are impinging on it, or trying to insure a sick child only to be told 'no' over and over again.

"We decided that needed to change. In a country as wealthy as this one, there was no reason why a family's security should be determined by the chance of an illness or an accident. We decided to do something about it," he said.

Next week, Congress will vote for the 37 th time on whether the the health care law should be repealed, but President Obama made clear Friday that the Affordable Care Act "is here to stay."

"Thanks to the women in this room and people all across the country, we worked really hard, and it's now been more than three years since Congress passed the Affordable Care Act and I signed it into law. It's been nearly a year since the Supreme Court upheld the law under the Constitution. And, by the way, six months ago, the American people went to the polls and decided to keep going in this direction. So the law is here to stay," he said.