Sunday May 12, 2024 | LANGFORD, BC
Sociopolitical editorial by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
In simpler times it was easy to see the influence of mothers on children and families. The old saying “the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world” was accurate in many ways. Children are at first nurtured, loved and influenced by their mothers.
However, today’s role for mother’s is highly complex. We are often expected to be away from the cradle and out in the world. It’s a new experiment, just decades really, and the impact on children and generations forward is yet to be seen.
Our western culture shows extreme wear and tear. Society now exhibits many odd things that could be seen as resulting from stresses on our psycho-social and sociocultural experiences. There are openly acknowledged mental health challenges widely among youth and young adults.
There is unrelenting economic distress of a magnitude not seen since the Great Depression (and in a variant way during the COVID pandemic).
There is massive disruption in the the understanding (and acceptance) of what gender and sexuality are or should be. There is a struggle to find privacy and safe harbour in a world that is ironically more connected than ever.
Some cultures — most obviously in the United States — express their anger over this mess through unfettered violence. In Canada we tend to politely contain it but it seeps out through odd modern creations like child gender diyphoria and intimate partner violence.
Mothers are everywhere. We give birth, we nurture, we guide, we provide example. Once a mother, always a mother, no matter how old our children become. Whether in good times or in bad, whether the relationship is wholesome and loving or clearly not, the mother-child bond is the strongest of all.
Thank your mother today for all she has done. It’s the hardest job in the world — the strains of pregnancy, the sleepness nights, the challenges of parenting — these are call caught up in the devotion to raising a child or many children.
It’s easy to blame parents for what they may have done less well than hoped. But nowhere is more responsibility and expectation placed on a woman who becomes a mother where there is also the least amount of socioeconomic support and respect.
Without mothers there would be no human world. This is a bedrock realization by men which long ago brought in the patriarchy that still inflicts strange realities onto mothers, children, families and our entire human existence on this planet.
Women’s education and loving relationships will help move the world forward. May we all find ways to be part of the solution of loving and respecting all women and every mother, and giving our children a chance at a positive healthy future.
And a special note to grandparents… they are the treasured backup team!
~ Mary P Brooke, Editor, Island Social Trends
===== RELATED:
- Continuing child care space success in BC says Dean (May 9, 2024)
- Child care in BC contributes to social & economic fabric (May 1, 2024)
- Mother’s Day 2023: women leading humanity forward (May 15, 2023)
- Thoughts on Mother’s Day 2022 (May 8, 2022)
===== ABOUT THE WRITER:
Island Social Trends Editor Mary P Brooke is the very proud mother of four now-grown children — Rebecca, James, Catherine and Jennifer — who are making their way in the world in creative, responsive and intelligent ways. They are making their contributions to the modern world through their careers (health-care policy, financial innovation, animal welfare leadership, and the arts) and through their positive relationships.
While running her own business, Mary was an active parent of young children from 1986 through 2015. As a family, the challenges of the greatly imperfect BC public education system in BC were experienced. She has lived firsthand the pressures against women to succeed, and the biases of the health-care system toward women.
Mary P Brooke has been writing and publishing socioeconomic analysis since 2008 through now four publications: MapleLine Magazine (2008-2010), Sooke Voice News (2011-2013), West Shore Voice News (2014-2020), and Island Social Trends (2020 to present).
Since covering the COVID pandemic daily in 2020-2022 Mary P Brooke now reports alongside the BC Legislative Press Gallery. In 2022 she ran for school trustee in the west shore region of Greater Victoria (SD62). In 2023 she was nominated for a Jack Webster Foundation journalism award that recognizes the community contributions of a professional woman journalist.
In 2024 Ms Brooke has launched the Urban Food Resilience Initiatives Society which aims to nurture families (through good nutrition and food resilience) and communities (food-growing infrastructure in urban communities).