What Is a Mother?

Does Mothering start at conception or birth? What if the answer to that question is neither?

Would you call a surrogate Mom a mother when all she did was get pregnant, carry the baby for 9 months and then hand it over to another female who has been dying to be its Mother? So the real question is, what is a mother or to be more thoughtful and precise; who is a mother?

Could she be your grandmother or a caring Aunt? Could she be a schoolteacher, a Sunday school teacher or a Nun? What about a neighbor or a stranger? A stranger?? Yes a stranger; just like the woman who traveled all the way to see you, choose you and paid a lot of money just to be your Mother. That’s right. Don’t forget that before the loving parent(s) adopted you, they were absolute strangers with no direct connection to you, yet they raised you and adore you like their own biological child. 

So here we are navigating our way through the ever evolving course around biological Mother, to surrogate Mother to Mothers who adopt and of course, everything in between, which can only mean that the strict definition of a Mother as: A woman who has given birth to a child or children, may need to evolve, because the same dictionary defines mothering as: Bringing up a child with care and affection. (It didn't make that latter definition gender specific, but let's leave men out of this for now, they will have their day). Isn’t that the lowest common denominator that defines a mother? A woman who raises or brings up a child with care and affection? So many non-biological Mothers qualify for the title of Mother and they surely deserve to be acknowledged as such.

Any fertile woman can bring a child into this world, but it takes a mother to love and nurture a child into a valuable human-being. Today is the day we choose to salute every Mother around the world, that has poured their love in a child and have positively impacted them, causing them to also make a positive impact in our world. There is no greater sacrifice and there is no greater reward. May the seeds of your legacy live on in your children and your children’s children…

Happy Mother’s Day!!!