Happy Mother's Day

Mother’s Day reminds us of the inestimable social contribution that women make to the world as they care for their fetuses, newborns, infants and young children. Sometimes, this contribution is forgotten. While Mother’s Day is a great way to celebrate mothers in our society, we should acknowledge the unparalleled addition that mothers make to our world every day.

The work of mothers is not always named or valued. This is work, work that requires knowledge, skill, patience, dedication a lot of time and an enormous amount of enthusiasm. Mothers have to learn how to keep their babies healthy, interested, safe, well-nourished, well-slept and soothed so that they grow into strong confident people.No one can do it by intuition and these skills have to be learned and practiced. No wonder mothers can sometimes feel overwhelmed or defeated.

Let’s stop taking the work of mothers for granted. Let’s start acknowledging that motherhood is real work and requires real skill. Let’s stop using critical terms like ‘stay-at-home’ or ‘not working’ or ‘just a mother’ to describe this work and recognise that EVERY healthy adult has been well mothered.

The things you say and do have a real impact on how mothers, especially new mothers, feel. This Mother’s Day, think about the things that you say to mothers and how it might make them feel.

Don’t say:

What have you been doing all day?

Can’t you talk about anything but the baby?

Why can’t you stop the baby crying?

Have you lost any of your baby weight?

Do say:

You are doing a fantastic job

You look as though you need a rest

This is hard work but we’ll get through it together.

This Mother’s Day, make sure you value, appreciate and celebrate the work of mothers.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Professor Jane Fisher & Team WWWT

Posted in: Parenting Experts