#motherhood

Was it the act of giving birth that made you a mother? Did you lose that label when you relinquished your child? If people were measured by their deeds, on the one hand, I had a woman who had chosen to give me up; on the other, I had a woman who'd sat up with me at night when I was sick as a child, who'd cried with me over boyfriends, who'd clapped fiercely at my law school graduation. Which acts made you more of a mother? Both, I realized. Being a parent wasn't just about bearing a child. It was about bearing witness to its life. ↗

— Jodi Picoult

#children #motherhood #parenting #life

I understood and appreciated the miracle of birth, but I did not understand motherhood, nor did I appreciate the oveselling of it. To me it was a choice, one of many options. To others it was what women did. We were supposed to breed. It had been decided for us. Society expected it. Religion demanded it. ↗

— Judy Morgan

#motherhood-once-removed #no-kidding #religion

So I guess you were hopelessly romantic and easily distracted, a B-plus mother, certainly good enough to get into Matriarchal State University but not quite good enough for St. Mary's College of the Blessed Womb Warriors. ↗

— Sherman Alexie

#romantic

Mothers who know do less. They permit less of what will not bear good fruit eternally. They allow less media in their homes, less distraction, less activity that draws their children away from their home. Mothers who know are willing to live on less and consume less of the world’s goods in order to spend more time with their children—more time eating together, more time working together, more time reading together, more time talking, laughing, singing, and exemplifying. These mothers choose carefully and do not try to choose it all. ↗

— Julie B. Beck

#parenting #media

She was not, herself, hugely in favor of motherhood in general. Obviously it was necessary, but it wasn't exactly difficult. Even cats managed it. But women acted as if they'd been given a medal that entitled them to boss people around. It was as if, just because they'd got the label which said "mother", everyone else got a tiny part of the label that said "child"... ↗

— Terry Pratchett

#motherhood #mothers #motherhood

لو أخبرته بأنني أحبه، فهو ينظر إليّ بخواء وحسب.. كل ما أفعله ناقص ومزيف، وأنا دائماً بحاجة إلى حججٍ وأدلةٍ للبرهنة على أمومتي. ↗

— بثينة العيسى

#motherhood

The danger of motherhood. you relive your early self, through the eyes of your mother. ↗

— Joyce Carol Oates

#motherhood #parenting #motherhood

Women do desperately need models for power other than the maternal. ↗

— Lois McMaster Bujold

#gynergy #maternal-influence #motherhood #power #motherhood

I think it's worth trying to be a mother who delights in who her children are, in their knock-knock jokes and earnest questions. A mother who spends less time obsessing about what will happen, or what has happened, and more time reveling in what is. ↗

— Ayelet Waldman

#motherhood

A mother is a child's first looking glass into the world. ↗

— Richelle E. Goodrich

#children #growing #learning #mom #mother