Mother

Mother

A mother (or mum/mom) is a woman who has raised a child, given birth to a child, and/or supplied the ovum that united with a sperm which grew into a child. Because of the complexity and differences of a mother's social, cultural, and religious definitions and roles, it is challenging to specify a universally acceptable definition for the term. The male equivalent is a father.

Read more about Mother.

Famous quotes containing the word mother:

    My lute, be as thou wert when thou didst grow
    With thy green mother in some shady grove,
    When immelodious winds but made thee move,
    And birds their ramage did on thee bestow.
    William Drummond, of Hawthornden (1585–1649)

    Fold up the banners! Smelt the guns!
    Love rules, Her gentler purpose runs.
    A mighty mother turns in tears
    The pages of her battle years,
    Lamenting all her fallen sons!
    Will Henry Thompson (1848–1918)

    Sometimes my wife complains that she’s overwhelmed with work and just can’t take one of the kids, for example, to a piano lesson. I’ll offer to do it for her, and then she’ll say, “No, I’ll do it.” We have to negotiate how much I trespass into that mother role—it’s not given up easily.
    —Anonymous Father. As quoted in Women and Their Fathers, by Victoria Secunda, ch. 3 (1992)