As we mark Mother’s Day this 11th day of March 2018, this article is written to call attention to why we must have respect for all women. We at Pride Magazine Nigeria salute all women all over the world. You are indeed the salt of the Earth.
“I believe in the strength and intelligence and sensitivity of women. My mother, my sisters [they]are strong. My mum is a strong woman and I love her for it.” —Tom Hiddleston
I have always been at a loss as to why women are not held in very high esteem in most cultures around the world. I have always wondered why any man in his right senses would think that a woman is lower than himself in status, or give a woman less compensation just because she is a woman. I am a father of many children and living witness to the journey women go through from conception to the birth of a child. I have also witnessed what it takes to nurture the child from birth onwards – the level of care and attention that is needed to ensure that the baby survives all the fevers, stooling and so many bruises and aches to get to adulthood. Where in the world will any child (male or female) survive if the mother was not so hands on to provide the needed care, attention and love?
If you are a man reading this, do you think that without the love, care, attention and sacrifice of your mother, you would have survived into adulthood? Truth is, you would have been long dead, buried and forgotten.
The question then is: who can put a price on a mother’s love for her children? From the time of conception, the bond of maternal love grows. It continues to grow when she hears that first cry and the baby is placed in her arms. Motherhood is a huge responsibility of nurturing and ensuring that the child survives into adulthood, including guiding the child to grow up into an upstanding, decent, honourable, respectful and responsible adult.
“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” – Proverbs 22.6. This passage from the Book of Proverbs rings very true to me because the values my parents especially my mother inculcated in me during my formative years are still with me today and have gone a long way to shape who I turned out to be.
Mothers, your influence on your children is awesome. Continue to change the world as you love and guide children to be useful members of society. Making sure that you bring up children to have due consideration, value and respect for womanhood.
I end this write up with a few quotes to reflect on:
- “An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy.” – Spanish Proverb
- “If you bungle raising your children, I don’t think whatever else you do well matters very much.” – Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
- “The mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom.” – H.W. Beecher
- “The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.” – W. R. Wallace
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY