The discussion about our mother always evokes strong emotions in us. And it should! After all, we lived in her womb for nine months even before we experienced the light of this world. When we try to appreciate her by telling others what she means to us or what a mother should be like or do, each of us has a different understanding and expression. In this article we will try to address some basic and general ways of understanding the unique role of the mother as relates to her children in the mother-child relationship.
As we emphasize the role of the mother, this is not to say that the father is not important or is less important. What the mother can give to her child and the extent to which she can give, very much depends on that which she can receive from her relationship with her spouse. If she receives support, joy, and peace from that relationship - that is what she will pass on. If she only finds false expectations, empty promises, and frustrations - then that is what she will pass on. Thus, as we emphasize the mother’s role, this in no way isolates or separates the mother from the father, nor does it place a greater emphasis on the mother’s role as opposed to the father’s one. Instead, it points to the mother’s unique role within the family.
‘Mother’ is defined as the person in whom life receives a form suitable for living in this world. What does ‘living in this world’ mean? It means that a person is alive and functioning physically and spiritually. It means that a person hungers for physical food - breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It also means that a person hungers for the spiritual nourishment - loving others and being loved by them, establishing intimate, committed and growing relationships, appreciating culture and nature, and most of all – loving and worshipping the Creator. All these begin to take shape and grow in the person of the mother.
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