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We celebrate Mothers next Sunday, 10 May 2020, but do we really celebrate motherhood all year round? Sadly, the reverse is the case. Mothering is regularly maligned and belittled in mainstream media. Oftentimes, mothers are mocked for their sacrificial devotion to their families.

If you think I am exaggerating, read this relatively recent article by Dianne Anders titled: “Aussie wife slammed by Today Show hosts for loving family epic response”.

Brooke Smith, wife and mother of 4 adorable children, was publicly mocked on live TV for loving her husband and taking care of her kids on The Today Show.

The Brisbane woman was mocked on social media after posting a picture of herself with her 4 super cute children, letting people know the lengths she’s willing to go to keep her family happy and safe.

Brisvegas resident, Brooke Smith, shared a post in the Facebook group “Mums Who Organise, Clean, Cook and Chat” this Monday, detailing the lengths she goes to on a daily basis to take care of her family.

“I always make sure I don’t go to bed until everyone’s lunches are packed, their clothes are set out for the next day, including my husband’s, and the house is clean”, Brooke wrote.

She continued, “sometimes it means I get to bed at nine; sometimes that means I get to bed at midnight, but I always get up early (4:30 with husband to make his breakfast and coffee).”

The post was not well-received on Facebook, with many users saying that her behaviour was regressive and damaging to the feminist movement. Others flat out insulted her by calling her a dumb Christian trophy wife.

The outrage made it onto national television, where the hosts of the popular morning talk show The Today Show joined in on the fun and threw more insults her way.

The talk show hosts did not only insinuate that her behaviour towards her family was appalling, but that her husband Sam Lawson was disabled and treating her like a slave.

“I like my husband, but make your own bloody breakfast and coffee, you know…” Allison Langdon exclaimed, while the rest mockingly laughed at Brooke’s comments.

Allison Langdon, the veteran reporter and TV journalist, had no problems criticising the Brisbane mother, but struggled even to admit that she loves her own husband, Michael Willesee Jr, another television journalist.

Brooke Smith responds to The Today Show
Smith is amazed that her single comment about her morning and night routine offended so many people, and garnered national media attention.

“They literally took a small snippet of something I posted in a group — which was for ‘Mums cooking, cleaning and organising’, mind you — and asked me, “Hey, I’m just running an article on this post. Is that OK?”
Brooke wasn’t anticipating the public televised ridicule of being a loving mother.

She continued, “No-one ever told me: oh hey, by the way, I’m going to sell it to every other newspaper and The Today Show, not even give you the heads-up. Anyway, if half of these frickin’ feminists knew half the crap I did for him, they would lose their minds and their heads would explode. All I did was share my night-time and morning routine, because I see people asking all the time how some people are organised? You know.”

This attack on a mother of four is hard to believe, but it is just the tip of the iceberg. Many years ago the Dads4Kids team realized that Mums need more support. Dads4Kids aired its first Mother’s Day TV Community Service Advertisement in 2003, called “Thank God for Mothers”. In 2019, we released our fifth Mother’s Day Campaign on National TV, simply called, “Thanks Mum”. We would do more if we had more funds.

Fatherhood has been under ferocious attack by mainstream media and the ruling elites in our society. But so has motherhood! That’s why this article by Javier Fiz Pérez titled, “Why we need to protect motherhood as if its endangered”, is so relevant.

“Motherhood — the act of being a protagonist in the creation and nurture of a unique and unrepeatable being — is a true gift. For nine months, a mother nurtures within her body and soul her dreams, happiness and gratitude for life as a new human is being formed within her. Mothers are both witnesses to and participants in the development of this person with his or her distinct genetic make-up and inner mystery – an individual who couldn’t have existed had it not been for that particular moment of a specific man and woman who are his or her parents.

More often than not, the expectant wait culminates with that wonderful moment – the child’s birth! For the first time, the father and mother can see in full that little “stranger” who has lived inside her mother’s womb for nine months. Until now, they have been like two bodies in one, so along with the “Hello!” there is also a certain “Goodbye!” too, as that small seed that grew so naturally into a fully developed human being will continue to grow in its own garden as a separate individual.

And of course, there is the profound motherhood that some women choose when they adopt a child who becomes every bit their own as a biological child.

Society must promote and protect motherhood
Protecting and supporting motherhood is a social duty. Even just from a practical perspective, society must favor motherhood, because motherhood fulfills a social function: it provides the world with new human beings who, among other things, will help pay for the retirement of their mothers’ employers and co-workers, and the nurses and doctors who brought them into the world.

A species that doesn’t reproduce itself tends toward extinction. While the world population is not even close to extinction, there are alarming signs of stagnation and even population decline in the coming decades, at least in developed countries – and even in developing nations there are some similar social indicators of a decline.

We need to make motherhood and work as compatible as possible
As a society, it’s important to ensure that women are able to alternate between motherhood and a professional career if they want. For this to work, it’s necessary that a husband provide his wife with all the support she needs to develop her knowledge and professional capacities. On the one hand, the mother must have enough time to do her part in raising their children, without irreversibly damaging her career and/or her involvement in society. On the other hand, her work shouldn’t negatively affect the attention she owes her children.

In some ways, today’s economic pressures make it difficult to find an optimal balance between women’s dedication to their family and to work outside the home. Therefore, it’s more important than ever to affirm that the world of work must learn to respect the gift of motherhood. To the degree that it fails to do so, it runs the serious risk of becoming dehumanized. Both the workforce and culture need the “feminine genius” of women so as to become and remain a more welcoming, more enjoyable, and more livable world.

Women who are mothers can make a peculiar contribution in this regard, if the world recognizes the complementary differences between women and men within their equality as people – and if their special timetables are respected so that their work obligations are adapted to their unique condition as mothers. The contribution of women through motherhood is truly a gift for all of humanity.

Lovework
Mother’s Day is next Sunday 10 May 2020, so you know what you have to do, and don’t spare the horses.

Your wife, the mother of your children, is more than worthy of the celebration and the appreciation!

Yours for Celebrating Mothers,
Warwick Marsh