Categories
Fulfillment

Maria Shriver on motherhood

Maria Shriver is a journalist and the First Lady of California. When she appeared on the Oprah show in 2004, she made an observation that I totally agree with:

How do we get women to stop saying, “I’m just a mother”? Or, “I used to be such and such, but now I’m just a mother?” We need to market motherhood. So I came up with a saying: “Motherhood: 24/7 on the frontlines of humanity. Are you man enough to try it?”

We’ve discussed this quote before and most of you felt that we needed to start by taking more pride in what we do as mothers and not allowing others to disparage or belittle it.

Do you still agree with that? What else can we do to stand up for ourselves and our callings?

Do you have a quote from a famous mom? Submit it to famousmoms (at) mamablogga.com and we’ll discuss it one week, and you’ll get a link (if you include your URL, of course).

Categories
Fulfillment

How do we do it?

How do we get women to stop saying, “I’m just a mother”? Or, “I used to be such and such, but now I’m just a mother?” We need to market motherhood. So I came up with a saying: “Motherhood: 24/7 on the frontlines of humanity. Are you man enough to try it?

—Maria Shriver, The Oprah Winfrey Show, 29 Apr 2004

I know I’m not the only one out there promoting motherhood. One of Maria Shriver’s goals as California’s First Lady is to empower mothers. And while I’m greatly heartened that motherhood has such a prominent and vocal proponent, I think (as I’ve said before) that we have to strengthen motherhood from the bottom up.

What do you think? Should we try to change society or our hearts first? And what’s the most effective way to do it?