#MothersDay – Celebrating The Strength In All Women

Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mums, past & present & those dreaming of the role. A mother’s job is a difficult & challenging one but the most rewarding. The enormity of that task dawned after my first child. A mother’s role is often underestimated, under-appreciated but often of the most immense in power.

Mothering Sunday, according to Church of England, was originally a feast day during Lent when people went to their home churches, or “mother” churches(perhaps their parish church, or the place they were baptised).

‘To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colours of a rainbow.” – Maya Angelou.

Nowadays we get together to celebrate the mothers of our families on Mothering Sunday and remember them with gratitude. In many churches, a gift of a small posy of flowers is distributed to mothers on this day. We also recall that God acts in maternal ways, as He comforts us and shelters us, nurtures and cares for us.

‘To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colours of a rainbow.”, Maya Angelou wrote.

The New Modern Shift

Being a mom is both beautiful and stressful, as the entry age to being a mom especially as the world is getting more learned is now in the 30s.

While not all women can be a mother, due to circumstances both within and outside their control – but celebrating them is the beauty of Mothering Sunday. “Possibly the worst thing you can do on Mother’s Day is to presume that every woman is a mother, or wants to be a mother, or will be a mother one day,” says Day. “Another painful aspect of the day for many of us is the idea that we are not kind or nurturing because we are childless. This strikes at the very core of feminine identity. Today, childless women can feel both intensely visible – because we don’t ‘fit’ – and invisible, because where is the space for our grief?”

You will find women saying. “I’m the only one in my circle of friends who don’t have kids. You can feel like something’s wrong with you like you’re not a complete woman.” This should not be.

From a biological perspective, a woman’s fertility typically drops quite dramatically after her 35th birthday. Despite this, the attractions of older motherhood mean more women over the age of 35 now give birth each year than women under 25. “Bringing up a young child in your early 40s is absolutely exhaustingly brilliant,” says Harrop. “You may have less energy than younger mums, but you’re economically more sound and you have more maturity. I can afford wraparound childcare, I’ve seen a lot of the world and I have many things to share with my son. I find spending time with him so rewarding.”

What is now most important is celebrating all women and mothers together, as becoming a mother is now more of a privilege to be cherished than a norm.