History of Mother's Day by Donna Schlachter

Photo by Simon Berger from Pexels

Mother’s Day, although past for this year, has a long and varied history. Attributed to the ancient Greeks and Romans, the celebration of their mother goddesses Rhea and Cybele is believed to be the first references to setting aside a specific day to remember and honor the contributions of not only goddesses but also of the women in our lives.

Photo by Javier Cruz from Pexels

Early Christians, wanting to reach these pagan cultures, initiated their own festival called “Mothering Sunday”, designed to draw believers and seekers alike into local churches or ‘mother church’, and was held on the fourth Sunday in Lent.

Photo by Sharefaith from Pexels

As with most religious celebrations, eventually secularism took hold. In the 1860s, Ann Reeves Jarvis started “Mothers’ Day Work Clubs”, where women were taught the skills needed to maintain their households, including cooking, cleaning, sewing, needlework, child-rearing, and so more. Following the Civil War, the group changed its name to “Mothers Friendship Day”, where women from both sides of the conflict were encouraged to befriend each other in hopes of aiding the country to reunite.


By 1870, Julia Ward Howe, with an eye on world peace, instituted her Mothers Day Proclamation and set June 2nd as the date for the celebration of the work of the women in her group.

Photo by Eva Elijas from Pexels

In 1905, Ann Jarvis died, and her daughter, Anna Jarvis, who never married, worked tirelessly to set aside a day each year to honor the sacrifices made by women for their children and their families. By 1908, the day was being celebrated in many towns and states, often with the support of a local department store. In 1912, the government officially set aside the second Sunday of May as Mother’s Day.

However, by 1920, Ann Jarvis was disgruntled at the commercialization of the holiday, and spent the rest of her life (she died in 1948) trying to undo all her hard work.

Photo by Giftpundits.com from Pexels

Today we celebrate Mother’s Day with cards, flowers, gifts, and oftentimes a day off from cooking and other household chores.


Celebrating Around the World

In Thailand, the day is celebrated on the birthday of the current queen, which currently is in August.

In Ethiopia, a multi-day celebration is held in early Fall.



No matter its source or how you celebrate, mothers are certainly important. None of us would be here without a mother. And regardless of the number of children borne, mothers are molders, those tireless individuals who fashion us into the productive adults we all strive to become. As women, we all have an important job to do—setting the example for the next generation, and teaching other women how to fulfill their God-given calling to impact and change lives.



Resources:

https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/mothers-day

https://www.shutterfly.com/ideas/mothers-day-bible-verses/

Donna lives in Denver with husband Patrick. As a hybrid author, she writes historical suspense under her own name, and contemporary suspense under her alter ego of Leeann Betts, and has been published more than 30 times in novellas, full-length novels, devotional books, and books on the writing craft.





 

 

 

 

 

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Motherhood in the Mid-Twentieth Century

Baby outside in baby carriage, 1952. By FOTO:FORTEPAN /
Vojnich Pál, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.

by Kiersti Giron

This month marks the final installment (for now!) of my “motherhood through history” series. If you’re interested, you can click on these links to read about motherhood in ancient times, medieval times, colonial times, the 19th century, and in Navajo culture.

But today, we finish in the twentieth century, focusing on how the lives of mothers changed—and didn’t—in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. I hope you enjoy as we complete this time tour and appreciate how the most important facets of motherhood have always stayed the same!




Hygiene and Heart 

The first half of the twentieth century held huge technological and medical advances, and these innovations had a high impact on mothers and child care. Much higher standards of hygiene and medical advancements such as antibiotics drastically lowered infant mortality rates, so mothers turned more than ever to doctors and even the government for advice on other matters in caring for their babies. In 1914, the Children’s Bureau published the first ever government-distributed pamphlet on child care, titled simply Infant Care. It quickly became a bestseller and was published every year through 1999. 

Excerpts from the 1935 edition of Infant Care (the year Title V of Social Security was enacted) form an interesting compare and contrast to advice given by the government today in such leaflets as the 2008 Bright Futures. For example, in 1935 mothers were urged not to let their babies suck on a pacifier, to keep them in a separate bedroom, and to expose them to sunlight as much as possible. In fact, an illustration noted that, “By fall baby should be well tanned!” The pamphlet emphasized the importance of direct sunlight in preventing rickets, as well as cod liver oil. 

Nursing Mother, By ELEANORE ABBOTT. From Report on the Philadelphia
Baby-Saving Show and conference on infant hygiene of 1913.
Internet Archive Book Images - Flickr and Wikimedia Commons.

By contrast, current government advice recommends pacifiers and keeping baby’s bed in the parents’ room when the baby is young (both to help prevent SIDS), and avoiding much direct sunlight on baby’s skin at all. However, the pamphlets then and now agree on the benefits and importance of breastfeeding—in 1935, this was especially because the infant mortality rate was significantly higher for “artificially-fed” infants. This was a big emphasis at the 1913 "baby-saving" conference in Philadelphia as well, at which the above drawing was displayed.

While all the emphasis on hygiene and “expert” advice did help improve health outcomes for many babies, mothers in the early and mid-twentieth century also came to rely less on their instincts and the wisdom of other, older mothers and more on doctors and government advice, which often meant the advice of men, who of course never had been mothers. This unfortunately led to doubting of natural maternal instinct. Despite the official emphasis on breastfeeding, breastfeeding rates declined sharply in the twentieth century in favor of bottles and “scientific” formula. In fact, between 1946 and 1950, only 25% of mothers even initiated breastfeeding. And as in the late 19th century, many mothers began to strictly schedule their infants’ feeding and sleeping by the advice of books rather than, as had been traditional, listening to their babies’ cues and their hearts. 

Window Display of Wash Master washing machine, Sydney, Australia, 1939.
 By State Library of New South Wales collection, Flickr and Wikimedia Commons.

Modern Appliances

One development of the early to mid-twentieth century, at least in America, was one all of us women can rejoice in—the advent of labor-saving household appliances! These inventions for the home made women’s housekeeping chores less onerous than they had been for centuries, and have even been credited with enabling the movement of wives and mothers to work outside the home. These new appliances ranged from the advent of the vacuum cleaner in 1913 to the washing machine in 1916, the refrigerator in 1918, and in 1947 the freezer. Of course, it took time before the majority of housewives owned these marvelous inventions, but by mid-century most American women did. No more scrubbing clothes on a washboard or struggling to keep food cold enough not to spoil!

Women’s Roles

The rapid change of the twentieth century changed women’s roles also. The 1910s and 20s saw the rapid rise of feminism and women’s rights, and in the 1940s, women joined the workforce in droves—because, with World War II, they had to. In the 1950s, however, women were urged back into the home to make room for returning soldiers to get jobs, and college attendance for women dropped significantly from what it had been in the 1920s. 

Traditional Housewife, By JosephineRN28 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53894269

The "baby boom" burgeoned families. And now, expectations of housewives in the 1950s were, in some ways, even higher than in previous decades, since women were culturally expected not only to keep a tidy home, feed their families, and care for their children, but to look great while doing it—have a beautiful home, tasty nutritious and appealing meals, tidy, well-behaved children, and keep themselves in lipstick and a frilly apron all the while.



So, what stands out to you about the changes for mothers in the twentieth century? What has changed since then, and what has stayed the same? Feel free to comment and share!



Kiersti Giron holds a life-long passion for history and historical fiction. She loves to write stories that show the intersection of past and present, explore relationships that bridge cultural divides, and probe the healing Jesus can bring out of brokenness. Kiersti has been published in several magazine and won the 2013 and 2018 Genesis Awards – Historical for her novels Beneath a Turquoise Sky and Fire in My Heart. An English teacher and member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Kiersti loves learning and growing with other writers penning God's story into theirs, as well as blogging at www.kierstigiron.com. She lives in California with her husband, Anthony, their two kitties, and their baby boy.

Motherhood in Traditional Navajo Culture

by Kiersti Giron

Navajo women spinning wool into yarn for rugs, 1933 - U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17104003

November is Native American Heritage Month, so in today’s post I’d like to continue my “motherhood through history” series by honoring Native American mothers. Women in general and mothers in particular have traditionally been highly regarded in Native American culture, often more so than their white counterparts at the time. While there are many similarities in motherhood between Native people groups, there are also differences, so I’ve decided to specifically focus on the Navajo this time, as the First Nations group I am most familiar with through researching my novels.

Matriarchal Society

The Navajo people are the largest Native American tribe in the U.S. living mostly in New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. While Native cultures typically honor women, most have historically still been patriarchal. Not so the Navajo—they are a matriarchal, matrilineal society literally built around women and their families. While men still held much decision-making power for the clan, to this day familial descent is traced through the mother’s clan, not the father’s. Women traditionally owned the Hogan, the traditional six-sided log home of the Navajo, and children belonged to her and would stay with her should she and her husband separate. If she wanted to divorce her husband, she signaled this by putting his belongings outside the Hogan. When a couple married, the young man came to live near his wife’s extended family, which included relatives of her mother, though he might still go and help his mother’s and sister’s families when he could. The wife controlled the majority of the family property, owned the sheep they raised and their products, such as wool and the traditional Navajo rugs made from it. 

Studio portrait of Navajo mother and child, 1880 - 1910.
http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15330coll22/id/36990,
Public Domain

Pregnancy and Birth 

Traditionally, it was taboo for an expectant mother to prepare much for her baby before he or she was born. To do so was thought to invite ill luck upon the child. Many other taboos governed much of a Navajo woman’s pregnancy—as they do much of traditional Navajo life. For example, a pregnant mother was to avoid tying knots, as this might prove a hindrance to the child being born. This came from the story of Changing Woman, whose birth was hindered by a door being bound, and she is seen as the ancestress of all Navajo mothers. Other taboos include avoiding any contact with death or a place of death during pregnancy for fear of causing harm to the baby, or wearing masks lest the baby’s face be deformed.

Until the middle of the 20th century, Navajo babies were born at home. The birth was traditionally attended by family members, often including the father, a midwife, and sometimes a medicine man, especially if difficulty arose during the birth. Women gave birth in an upright position such as kneeling or squatting, which we know does indeed facilitate easier childbirth compared to the Western tradition of lying flat in bed, and typically held onto a sash or rope tied to the ceiling of the hogan.

As in all cultures, the birth of a baby brought great joy. This joy continued to be celebrated when a baby had his or her first laugh, with a "laughing party" where the child gave gifts to all attendees, encouraging a spirit of joyful generosity throughout the baby's life.

Cradleboards and Cliff Rose Diapers

Navajo mother and child, 1933 - 1942, Arizona. By Ansel Adams
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Public Domain
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15848428

As in many Native American cultures, Navajo women traditionally bound their babies onto cradleboards, and the traditional craft of making these boards still exists today. The back of the cradleboard is made of a local wood like cottonwood or pine, and a thin piece of oak curved over the top of the board, handily protecting the baby’s head if it should fall. The baby was wrapped in a warm cloth with his or her arms at the side, then bound to the cradleboard with strips of buckskin. A Navajo mother could then easily take her baby with her wherever she went, propping the cradle against the hogan or a tree when working outside. Typically babies were carried in the arms and then propped up to watch the mother working more than the stereotypical image of hanging on their mothers’ backs. Many mothers would even nurse their babies without taking them out of the cradleboard. 

As babies grew a bit older, their arms might be left free if they were awake, and even bits of beads attached to the top of the cradleboard for them to bat at. (Having a six-month-old myself, I can definitely see the draw!) As babies entered the second half of their first year, at some point they would “graduate” out of the cradleboard, a decision often partly dependent on the baby’s preference.

Lamb and Navajo baby in cradleboard - U.S. National Archives
and Records Administration, Public Domain
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17066557

Then as now, babies need provision in the diaper area, and Navajo mothers had a creative solution. The soft bark of the cliff rose plant was shredded up in large quantities and tucked between the baby’s legs in the cradleboard, then simply changed as needed. Sometimes juniper was used instead.

So as with all the other cultures and periods of history we’ve looked at in this motherhood series, while many aspects of mothering do vary across time and place, many others—from diapering needs to our love for our children—remain the same. What struck or surprised you from learning about Navajo mothers? Please comment and share! 

Kiersti Giron holds a life-long passion for history and historical fiction. She loves to write stories that show the intersection of past and present, explore relationships that bridge cultural divides, and probe the healing Jesus can bring out of brokenness. Kiersti has been published in several magazine and won the 2013 and 2018 Genesis Awards – Historical for her novels Beneath a Turquoise Sky and Fire in My Heart. An English teacher and member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Kiersti loves learning and growing with other writers penning God's story into theirs, as well as blogging at www.kierstigiron.com. She lives in California with her husband, Anthony, their two kitties, and their new baby boy.

Motherhood in Colonial Times

         

by Kiersti Giron

Today we continue our series on motherhood throughout the ages (last month we read about medieval motherhood), focusing this month on being a mother in the 18th century, particularly Colonial America. I hope you enjoy learning about mothering in this period as much as I did; as always, I am moved to see yet again that however much times have changed, the heart of being a mother and raising children really does remain the same across the years.

Mother and child, American 18th Century. File donated to Wikimedia Commons
 by the National Gallery of Art. See Gallery's Open Access Policy.,
CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81303921

A Full-Time Job

Even today, mothering can easily be a full-time job—or more!—but in colonial America, motherhood typically was truly a woman’s life-work. With families of ten or more children not only common but the norm (though several children often would not survive till adulthood), a woman likely would spend most of her life between the ages of twenty and forty-five either pregnant or nursing. Thanks to breastfeeding’s natural contraceptive quality, children were usually spaced a couple of years apart, but large families were both expected and desired. After all, many hands were needed for building the new immigrant society.

Then as now, it was easy for new mothers to feel overwhelmed by the intense and sometimes all-consuming needs of their little ones. As a new mommy myself, I sympathized with the words of Esther Edwards Burr, mother of Aaron Burr, who wrote after the birth of her second child in 1756:

“When I had but one Child my hands were tied, but now I am tied hand and foot. (How I shall get along when I have got ½ dzn. or 10 children I cant devise.)”

Bless her heart.

By Thomas Quine - 18th century gown, CC BY 2.0
Wikimedia Commons. 18th century styles
were easily adaptable for motherhood.

Motherhood Fashions

Since motherhood was such an integral part of most women’s lives, clothing fashions of the 18^th century were actually fairly adaptable to pregnant and nursing mothers. While the stays that squeezed women into fashionable narrow waists might seem—and were—quite unhealthy in pregnancy, they were in fact designed with lacings to be let out at the sides as an expectant mother’s waistline grew. Other women ditched the stays entirely in late pregnancy, like the Duchess of Marlborough, who wrote in 1735 that during the last three months of her pregnancy, she merely “wore a warm waistcoat wrapped about me like a man’s and tied my petticoats on top of it.” Women’s dresses also were made to be easily let out or adapted with different inserts or aprons to transform them into maternity wear.

For breastfeeding mothers, the era’s low necklines, often filled in with a light scarf or fichu, were already quite practical. At least one set of stays from this period also survives with special flaps inserted, doubtless to make nursing even easier.

Coral Teethers and Pudding Caps

Silver and Coral teether made by Paul Revere, late 18th century.
By Daderot - Own work, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Many ups and downs of the baby and toddler years haven’t changed much over the centuries, from teething to toddler tumbles. For teething babies, colonial mothers who could afford them might offer an elaborate teether made of silver, complete with bells to jingle when the baby shook the toy, a rattle, and a piece of polished coral for little gums to gnaw on. Coral was actually thought to be protective for teething children at the time, as 18th century parents actually considered teething quite dangerous! Once babies learned to walk, mothers often tried to protect their heads from tumbles with a padded cap, called a “pudding cap.” If you’ve ever heard someone affectionately refer to a little person as a “puddin’ head,” the term comes from those caps!

"Pudding Cap" child's head protector, Swiss, 18th century.
This file donated to Wikimedia Commons by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
See Image and Data Resources Open Access Policy, CC0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59659879

Boys and girls were dressed much alike for their early years, in cloth diapers or “clouts” and layers of petticoats and gowns—and even miniature stays/corsets—as infants, then graduating to dresses for both sexes as they grew older. Boys were “breeched,” or transitioned from gowns to breeches, somewhere between the ages of four and seven.

Though times of boys in dresses, pregnant mothers in stays, and infants teething on coral may seem far from us, mothers’ love and concern and care for their children has not. What stands out most to you about these mothers of colonial times? What surprises you, or seems familiar? Please comment and share!

Kiersti Giron holds a life-long passion for history and historical fiction. She loves to write stories that show the intersection of past and present, explore relationships that bridge cultural divides, and probe the healing Jesus can bring out of brokenness. Kiersti has been published in several magazine and won the 2013 and 2018 Genesis Awards – Historical for her novels Beneath a Turquoise Sky and Fire in My Heart. An English teacher and member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Kiersti loves learning and growing with other writers penning God's story into theirs, as well as blogging at www.kierstigiron.com. She lives in California with her husband, Anthony, their two kitties, and their new baby boy.

References:

https://www.history.org/history/clothing/women/motherhood.cfm

https://colonialquills.blogspot.com/2017/05/motherhood-in-colonial-times.html

https://www.history.org/history/clothing/children/cglossary.cfm

Motherhood in Medieval Times

By Kiersti Giron

Mother and child in medieval reenactment. By Jan Tik - Flickr, CC BY 2.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1315002

Today we continue our series on motherhood in various eras of the past (click here to read last month’s post on being a mom in ancient times). This month we travel back to the Middle Ages—an era we often think of as the Dark Ages. However, as new mommy to a baby boy myself, I was struck by the many ways motherhood in medieval times actually hasn’t changed in the past thousand years. I hope you enjoy learning about them too!

Working Moms and Wet Nurses

We tend to consider “working moms” a modern concept, but in reality, mothers have worked in and outside the home for millennia. In medieval times, many mothers of the lower and middle classes needed to return to working on the family farm or trade in town while their babies were still small. While for moms today going back to work may mean pumping their milk and using bottles in order to continue nourishing their babies, medieval families often hired a wet nurse. These women were often paid three times the wages of a maid for the responsibility of nursing the family’s children.

Of course, many wealthy mothers used wet nurses too—for royalty, one reason was so a woman’s fertility would return sooner due to not breastfeeding, enabling her to more quickly produce another potential heir. But the use of wet nurses by lower-class families surprised me more. Just goes to show that balancing work and motherhood has never been simple…

Fears and Faith

Medieval Amulet to protect mother and child in childbirth.
By Sefer Raziel - http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/jms/img/front.jpg,
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

…Or easy. While as mothers today we fear things like SIDS and school shootings, medieval mothers had even more reason to worry about their children. Even if mother and baby survived childbirth just fine—and about one in three women died during their childbearing years in the Middle Ages—pretty much every medieval family could expect to lose at least one child, usually before age five.

Much like today, mothers turned to faith to comfort their fears. During the trials of childbirth, many medieval women clutched religious objects or repeated prayers. Babies were baptized soon after birth—a midwife was even allowed to baptize a baby if it seemed he or she hadn’t long to live—in order to proactively save, in the Roman Catholic mindset, the child’s soul, however short the little life might be.

Toys, Tots, and Honey Speech Therapy

Medieval children grew up in a very different world from ours, yet many things remained the same. They played with toys not unlike those of today, such as dolls, animal puppets, rattles, even walkers, as well as engaging in imaginative play outside. Gerard of Wales, of the 12^th century, even records a favorite pastime of building sand castles—which, when you think about it, actually makes more sense in that day than in ours!

Medieval Toy Dog, By The Portable Antiquities Scheme/ The Trustees of the British Museum,
CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56013273

And just like mothers of the 21^st century, medieval mothers watched eagerly to see that their children reached certain developmental milestones. Speech received special attention—parents were encouraged to speak frequently around their children, and use simple words, just as mothers and fathers do today. Honey was thought to have special speech-promoting properties, and honey and butter were frequently applied to young children’s mouths, especially if their speech seemed delayed. Not so unlike our speech therapy and proactive “educational” techniques today, even if the methods are very different.

So while our world has changed greatly since the Middle Ages, the heart of being a mother, of loving one’s children and struggling to achieve the safest and best life for them, really hasn’t changed that much at all.

So what strikes you about medieval motherhood? What else has and hasn’t changed about raising children over the generations? Please comment and share!

Kiersti Giron holds a life-long passion for history and historical fiction. She loves to write stories that show the intersection of past and present, explore relationships that bridge cultural divides, and probe the healing Jesus can bring out of brokenness. Kiersti has been published in several magazine and won the 2013 and 2018 Genesis Awards – Historical for her novels Beneath a Turquoise Sky and Fire in My Heart. An English teacher and member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Kiersti loves learning and growing with other writers penning God's story into theirs, as well as blogging at www.kierstigiron.com. She lives in California with her husband, Anthony, their two kitties, and their new baby boy.

Motherhood in Ancient Times

by Kiersti Giron 

After examining childbirth and motherhood in the 19th century earlier this summer, today we’re going to take a trip far earlier in time—to the ancient world, where becoming a mother was the most important, as well as most dangerous, part of a woman’s life.

Ancient Egypt

Cleopatra offers a sacrifice to Isis in this Egyptian engraving.
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons.

Let’s begin in Egypt, one of the most complex early civilizations of the world. The ideal mother in Ancient Egyptian society was the goddess Isis, the “Divine Mother” whose cult produced thousands of bronze statuettes of her nursing her son Horus—many of which can still be seen in museums today. In the Egyptian mindset, human mothers also deserved much honor and respect, especially from their sons. Children were expected to care for their mothers as they aged, and there is one record of an elderly mother disinheriting her children because they did not. A didactic text from Any, dating from 1500 B.C., gives a fascinating peek into the care of an Egyptian mother for her child—one mothers throughout the centuries can relate to.

“When you were born after your months, she was yet yoked to you. Her breast in your mouth for three years, as you grew…When she sent you to school, and you were taught to write, she kept watch over you daily.”

Ancient Israel

The Bible and other ancient Jewish texts give fascinating glimpses into the early mothers of Israel. Midwives were significant women in Israelite culture, seen especially in the beginning of Exodus when the Hebrew midwives were called before Pharaoh—and because of their faith and courage, many Israelite baby boys were saved. The text there hints at childbirth practices of the time, such as the birth stool, thought to be composed of two stones in early days—kneeling also seems to have been a common birthing position, and we now know being upright in childbirth does make things easier. After the baby was born, he or she was commonly bathed and rubbed in salt, then swaddled in strips of cloth, just as Mary did when Jesus was born.

Mary and Infant Jesus, thought to be by Coreggio. Internet Archive Book Images - https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/14578002368/Source book page: https://archive.org/stream/correggiocollect00hurl/correggiocollect00hurl#page/n26/mode/1up,
No restrictions, 

Jewish mothers were ritually unclean for some time after giving birth, with the purification sacrifice for after childbirth occurring forty days if the baby was a boy, eighty days if a girl. Interestingly, it is recognized today that it takes about six weeks for a mother to physically recover from childbirth—about the forty days Leviticus prescribes.

As in ancient Egypt, where we have already seen that breastfeeding for three years was apparently normal, Jewish mothers generally nursed their children for two to three years. Weaning was a time of fulfillment and celebration, typically with a party, like the weaning feast for Isaac in Genesis 21.

Jewish mothers were honored as well, seen in Proverbs 31’s laudatory description of a wife and mother who fears the Lord. And Jesus took special care to ensure that His mother was taken care of when He was dying on the cross. In typical Jewish culture, mothers had the primary care of their children, at least boys, for the first six years or so, after which the father would take a greater role in his sons’ training in the Law and a trade.

Plutarch, early Greek philosopher and proponent of breastfeeding.
By Odysses - original: own work of author; this is a cropped version of
File:Copy_of_Plutarch_at_Chaeronia,_Greece.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0

Ancient Greece and Rome

In classical Greece and Rome, wet nurses were common for nursing babies, at least for wealthy families. However, such prominent writers as Aristotle and Plutarch urged against this practice; as Plutarch wrote, “It is necessary that mothers breast feed their own children, because they will indulge them with love and kindness.”  

While Greek and Roman women did have some place in society, mothers lacked rights we today might take for granted. For example, at the birth of a baby in ancient Greece, it was up to the father whether to keep the child or expose it to the elements, as Oedipus was at birth in the play Oedipus Rex. Of course, this effective infanticide was enacted against more baby girls than boys. Mothers also did not get custody of their children if the couple were to divorce—children instead were given to the father, though sometimes mothers and children stayed together voluntarily.

So, what stands out to you about mothering in ancient times? If you had to pick an ancient culture to be a mother in, which would you choose? Please comment and share!

Kiersti Giron holds a life-long passion for history and historical fiction. She loves to write stories that show the intersection of past and present, explore relationships that bridge cultural divides, and probe the healing Jesus can bring out of brokenness. Kiersti has been published in several magazine and won the 2013 and 2018 Genesis Awards – Historical for her novels Beneath a Turquoise Sky and Fire in My Heart. An English teacher and member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Kiersti loves learning and growing with other writers penning God's story into theirs, as well as blogging at www.kierstigiron.com. She lives in California with her husband, Anthony, their two kitties, and their new baby boy.

A Mother's Heart (Through the Ages)

by Linore Rose Burkard

Okay, so I've missed Mother's Day.  I nevertheless wanted to share a special category of art prints that I just adore: Mothers and Children in History. What shines through these prints is the enduring, unchanging, undeniable love of a mother for her young. Whether she is holding, rocking, reading to, cooking for, or just gazing at her youngsters, a mother's love is unmistakable. Are you a mother? If you're like me, you'll recognize yourself in the following prints.

Georgian Era. French. One woman visiting a mother and her children.

 I'm especially fond of prints I find from the Regency or Georgian era since my historical novels are set in that period.

Very late Regency but pre-Victorian. Notice how the little girl is wearing attire very similar to her mother's.

1816 (Regency Era) Artist: David Vilain This little girl's gown also mirrors the mother's in style--though not in elegance. Notice the matching hair styles.

1809.  (Nursing) Mother and child.

1809. The same artist as the one above, perhaps?

Are you enjoying the mothers and children in these portraits? I hope so, for I have many more to share!

Artist: Adolf Eberle (Grandmothers count!)

"Afternoon Quiet" Artist: Edward Lansom Henry

"A Tea Party"  Artist: Thomas Webster. What mother of little girls has not overseen a tea party? :)

My homeschooling mother's heart loves this one. Mothers have been homeschooling forever. Artist: Bernard Pothast

Babysteps! (And we thought baby walkers were a modern invention.)

1826. Ackermann's print. The young girl's gown mimics the mother's, but with age-appropriate pantalettes.

Stylized, perhaps. By one of my favorite artists: Bouguereau.

The famous Duchess of Devonshire in a playful moment with her child. 

Another by Bernard Pothast. Mother reading to children.

"Breakfast Time"  Artist: Harry Bricker

"Good Morning, Baby"  (artist: Anon.)

"Grace"--(What all good moms do with their children)  Artist: Jeffrey T. Larson

One of Mary Cassatt's fabulous Mother and Child paintings. She's another of my favorite artists, and one of the more unsung masters of Impressionism. 

"The Wet Nurse"  Artist: Marguerite Gerard.

 

 This fashionable French mama hired a wet nurse, as many upper class mothers did, but she is no less the loving mother, as her doting gaze reveals. 

      This was just a sampling of the prints I've collected, but I have to mind my blogging limits. :) 
I hope you've enjoyed them. It's nice to see that sometimes mothers have been recognized for their special role in the lives of their children--at least in works of art!  Blessings for all mothers, everywhere!



Linore Rose Burkard is best known for historical regency novels with Harvest House Publishers, including Before the Season Ends, the award-winning The House in Grosvenor Square, and, The Country House Courtship.

Linore teaches workshops for writers with Greater Harvest Workshops in Ohio, is a homeschooling mother of five, and is currently working on a YA novel. Keep up with Linore by subscribing to her free newsletter atLinore@LinoreBurkard.com