Today’s Women’s History Month post highlights motherhood, one of the most challenging, exhausting, all-encompassing responsibilities on the planet, with few accolades and really lousy hours but so much possibility.
Does this qualify as false advertising?!
Often moms in children’s literature are background characters, yet even there we notice some flashes of genius. For instance, there’s Ferdinand the bull’s mother,
who initially worries about her son sitting quietly just smelling the flowers, but “because she was an understanding mother, even though she was a cow, she let him just sit there and be happy.” Way to go, mom. Individuality starts here.
I adore the moms in several of Jonathan Bean’s stories — At Night and Big Snow — who empathetically care for their children while giving them space and freedom to explore and dream and be.
One of my favorite storybook moms is Alfie’s mother, whose house is always unapologetically mussy, whose hair has not seen a salon recently, whose breakfast table is a jumble of milk splotches, egg smears, and the odd sock. Hers is a happy, creative household and she makes no pretense of keeping it all completely under control. Plus, she gets her kids out of doors a LOT!
The women in the following books (gleaned from my archives) are not famous for their accomplishments, yet live quietly heroic lives, nurturing small human beings with love, wisdom, courage, creativity, patience, cunning, fortitude, conviction, selflessness, empathy, resilience, comfort, contentment, and the list goes on.
Represented here are tired mothers, grandmothers, single moms, veiled moms, nannies, adoptive mothers, refugee mothers, harassed mothers, black, white, latino and native mothers, camping moms, berry-picking grandmas, hospitable mothers…
To all of you coping with the demands of motherhood, perhaps quailing before the superhero women featured in most Women’s History Month posts — hats off to you and the epic job you do every day!
Tromping around outdoors moms…
Alfie Weather
Oh so tired moms…
Are You Awake?
taking time to listen grandmas…
The Baby on the Way
uber clever moms…
Bread and Jam for Frances
hardworking single moms…
A Chair for My Mother
deeply religious moms…
Deep in the Sahara
profoundly there-for-you nannies…
The Friend
warmhearted grandmas…
Grandma’s House
bighearted adoptive moms…
Hattie Peck
magically creating spring moms…
How Mama Brought the Spring
incredibly brave refugee moms…
The Journey
wise in life grandmas…
Last Stop on Market Street
harassed but not quitting moms…
Leave Me Alone!
ordinarily awesome moms…
My Mom
spunky world-opening grandmas…
Nana in the City
lively ditch the rules grandmas…
Peeny Butter Fudge
carrying you with me moms…
A Ride on Mother’s Back
creative, content grandmas…
Sunday Shopping
canoeing, camping moms…
Three Days on a River in a Red Canoe
berry-picking grandmas…
Wild Berries
hospitable, merciful moms…
orange marmalade 
So beautifully done! Thank you.
It was a pleasure 🙂
Thank you so much for this list! I could certainly use it this week 🙂 Your description of Alfie’s mom sounded eerily familiar to me, but I don’t usually look at it some of those tendencies so positively in myself — I really must read that book! (Except I did go to the hair salon the other day, after many, many, many months and chopped half my hair off because it was driving me crazy! About a week ago, even that part of the description would have fit perfectly though — haha!)
Haha. I think being an Alfie-mom is better for our stress level 🙂 Glad you got a hair cut in amidst the insanity 🙂