Thank you for the warm words for the Rachel Sabbath Initiative!
Amanda Winters
Scholar in Residence, Religious Institute

"Women and in particular mothers, have a clearly defined role set by men and the market, particularly on days such as the second Sunday in May."
I'd better phone my grandchildren and tell them to trash their self-made Mother's Day cards and to forget about bringing Mummy breakfast in bed tomorrow. Would hate to see their role in life set down by men and the market.

"Women and in particular mothers, have a clearly defined role set by men and the market, particularly on days such as the second Sunday in May."

Ah ha

No wonder Fathers Day is now almost forgotten about.

"Who sat me on the col, col pot?
Me Mudder!
Whether I wanted it or not?
Me Mudder!
Who took me from my warm, warm, bed,
And smacked my bum till it was red,
Then kissed me on my little head?
Me Mudder!"

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY EVERYONE!

Right back atcha, Foxy

I am mother to my animal friends and I am going to be mother to my own mum.

If caring for others makes us 'mother' then it is not gender exclusive:

HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY TO ALL WHO CARE.

Foxy,
No woman would ever carry out abuse on a child as written above.

Or, if it was carried out by a woman, a man must have made her do it.

Dear Vanna,

Unlike ships, human relationships
founder on pebbles, not reefs.
A good parent knows that good
discipline does not lessen self-esteem.
They are careful not to diminish self-worth.
A smack on the behind does no harm if
dispensed appropriately, and I can assure
you that "Me Mudder," knew what she was
doing. Discipline, like surgery, requires
precision - no random cuts, no rambling
comments. Above all, a parent demonstrates
self-discipline and good manners-no tantrums,
no insults, no blistering language.

"Me Mudder" did not raise her voice to end
noise. She did not use force to break up
fighting. She wasn't rude to any of her
children who were impolite, and she did
not berate any of her children who used
bad language. She did not abdicate her
moral authority, and she did not enter
mud-throwing contests with her children.
Her discipline was never bizarre and her
correction never sadistic.

I trust this clears things up for you.

Have a great week-end!

Vanna, you seem a very bitter person? Some nasty women must have upset you at some time? I hope you now know some nice women?

I am going away on holiday to Canberra with my 78 year old Mother on Sunday. She is so excited (I just hope I won't freeze to death!).

Before that, my own little family will celebrate Mother's day at a Thai restaurant together. My daughter tells me she has bought me another bead for my Pandora bracelet for Mother's Day.

We celebrate just the same on Father's Day, Vanna. I am sorry if your Father's Day celebrations are forgotten.

Oh those terribly oppressed Christian women! Why this article is not about the oppression of women by Islam leads me to the conclusion that Alan is just another one without the guts to face real oppression and instead focuses on what he sees as an easy target.

If Alan wants to tell people what to preach in their pulpits he should start his own church. I doubt whether he would get a Christian following. Deveny might like to join up with him. It must irk Alan to no end to see that many women are happy to take their natural role in the church and be supporters of their husbands and mothers to their kids. Oh what a terrible crime in Alan's sight. Thankfully their are many men in the church with enough courage to lead their families with servant leadership as required of God by them.

Thankfully the church that Christ is coming back for will not be feminized like our Government and other institutions.No wonder they are so horribly incompetent and that poor young kids are confused about their sexuality. Godly men will have the courage to pour scorn on those wanting to undermine god ordained authority and will see the source of Alan's 'theology'. I wish all the mum's a wonderful mother's day and hope your kids give you the respect and love you deserve.

Foxy,
I thought your mother spanked you on the bum until it was red. It must have been someone else.

Suzanonline,
I know how oppressed women are, and how oppressed mothers are as well.

I see the oppression every time I walk past “Rainbow Nails”, and see the manicures taking place, not only of finger nails, but of toe nails as well.

And...until you have walked in the shoes of a Mother [in the truest sense] you will never comprehend how those Women, of whom some would be Mothers, fully DESERVE every little ounce of nailpolish painted on to their toes Vanna. Mix with more Mothers apart from the woman who obviously profoundly hurt you.

Excellent article, thank you Allan, I enjoyed reading it.

We are unique,
I have heard that the last thing a woman stops spending money on is clothes and cosmetics for herself. They will cut back on spending money on clothes for their children before they cut back on spending money on themselves. In fact, major store chains have been known to increase sales of women's clothes during a recession, and they generally don't reduce their orders of women's clothes during a recession, when they reduce their orders of everything else.

Some other little facts, about 25% of women don't have children, and about 25% only have one.

Of those that have children, the majority do not breast feed at all, or for more than a few months.

The greatest amount of child poverty and child neglect occurs in a single parent family with the mother as the parent.

One of the greatest hidden problems facing aborigional communities is mothers drinking and smoking when pregnant (close to 100% of pregnant women in some communities)

But none of this should be mentioned, because mothers are such wonderfull people, although oppressed by men of course.

Vanna no parent will ever get it 'right' ie never a 'perfect parent'. My childrens necessities and luxuries have always been provided prior to mine. My husband of 20 years all his things came before mine. The interesting point is that all of my girlfriends over 20 years as mothers have all done the very same thing. Placed their childrens needs AND luxuries before theirs.

Guess its best not to generalise about mothers.

Best wishes Vanna.

Having said that..as Pelican stated a few weeks or months ago in another thread, the greatest thing [along those lines] to give your children is LOVE and show your LOVE, in which I have tried hard to demonstrate to my children that I LOVE them, more than any words can ever describe. No presents on Mothers Day for me as having them safe, healthy and happy is the GREATEST gift in my life.

We are unique,
Safety is important, and by far the highest rates of injuries to children occur in the home.

Right now, looking at the bigger picture, and considering the overall statistics, motherhood in Australia is in the worst state it has ever been in, and women are becoming increasingly hopeless.

Vanna, are you trying to start a fight with the women on this thread?

Sorry mate but we have our hands full with battling other women-haters on this forum, like (Anti)septic, formerneversnag and Proxy(Herman).

I just can't be bothered with you.

Suze

Vanna's just another with uterus envy:

>>

Birth of a Bond:

Illustrating a Year of Mother and Baby Development
From embryo to infancy, biologically accurate illustrations from theVisualMD.com illuminate changes in mother and baby as the two grow and develop together

By Katherine Harmon

Genetically, children are a blend of code from both of their parents. But for the first nine months of development, a fetus gets just about everything else from its mother. The two individuals' systems are so intertwined that even after birth, material from a fetus can linger in the mother's body for decades.

The process means major changes for both mother and child. Beginning about three months into pregnancy, the growing fetus and enlarging uterus become visible as a small belly bump. At the end of the second trimester, a woman's uterus has usually reached the size of a papaya to accommodate a 23-centimeter-long fetus, and by the time of a full-term delivery, the uterus will have expanded to about the size of a watermelon, shifting other internal parts around to make room.

In addition to sheer growth, the developing organs and features of the fetus require extra input from the mother's body. In the second two trimesters of pregnancy, women often need an extra 300 calories a day and a range of nutrients to support healthy growth of a fetus—and even more after delivery if the child is being breastfed.

After birth, certain biochemical compounds are at work in both mother and child to sustain and accentuate the bond between the two. Hormones, such as oxytocin, surge in mothers after labor and during breast-feeding, promoting social and emotional bonding with the infant. And in babies, just being touched spurs the release of the same compound, helping them, in turn, bond with their moms and other care takers.

This intensive and intimate journey has been illustrated by the Visual MD, revealing the changes that both mother and child go through during their first year together. <<

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=illustration-pregnancy-bond

Severin,
If women in Australia wanted money to be mothers (and some do) then they probably shouldn’t be paid anything.

When 50% of women have no babies or only one baby, and when 70% of the women with babies don’t breastfeed for more than a few months (and the rate of breastfeeding in Australia is now below world average), and when so many mothers eliminate the father and live on welfare (and also plunge the child into welfare), then they wouldn’t be doing a good enough job to get any wages at all.

You wouldn’t even hire someone to be a mother if they were going to do all that.

Hey, Happy Mother's Day to all on the forum :)
(except Vanna- who is determined to ruin any thoughts of mothers).

I am off on holidays from work now, but when I come back I was thinking of beginning a thread about how we can give insults without actually swearing.

Vanna- what do you think of this one-
May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits?

Hmmmm..... well maybe not :)
Cheers, Suze.

Suzeonline,
Have a good holidays. Get a tan and get your nails done. Your probably deserve it.

But if you think that mothers in Australia are actually doing a Really Good Job, then don’t go thinking of hiring yourself out as a mother.

Gawd, a bloke goes away camping and fishing with his mates for the weekend and comes back to a veritable cacophony of bleating from the kinds of woeful excuses for manhood that give the rest of us a bad name. Give it a rest, guys - maybe take the time to actually read Alan Matheson's excellent article.

Mother's Day has certainly moved far away from its worthy beginnings, but that's no excuse for the usual suspects to appropriate it as a platform to slag off at women in general.

Don't pay too much attention to vanna's drivel, which seems to have ramped up over the weekend. Before morphing into 'vanna', he was 'HRS', and before that 'Timkins'. He seems to be working himself up to yet another change of identity as a consequence of losing control of his hatred for women yet again.

C J Morgan,
Your the poster that can't stop abusing other posters. Could you nominate any post that you have ever made where you not called another poster a name or given them abuse.

No wonder you like feminists and teachers.

Motherhood in Australia is in an inglorious state when relevant statistics are reveiwed.

Unfortunately, there is now little to celebrate on Mother's Day in this country, and in many others.

I'm a mother but loathe the commercial hype that currently accompanies Mother's Day.

Now I must admit that I still have the cardboard Mother's Day cards that my kids made in kindy. But in the light of this article, I think we need new customs to make Mother's Day a celebration oriented in action.

Just imagine it - people handing out olive branches rather than chrysathemums, releasing white doves rather than balloons, and rather than passive recipients of choccies, having Mums march side by side with their kids in the city streets under banners decrying the atrocities and wastefulness of war. Mmmmm - sure beats feeding the commercial coffers flogging chocolates and flowers.

Why don't we have two Mother's Day celebrations? Suziekue's action Mother's Day celebration and the current Mother's Day celebration. After brekkie in bed with the cards and the flowers and the chockies from the kids, mum and family then change into marching gear and down to the street/park to unfurl the banners, hand out the olive branches, start up the chants, and release the doves of peace.
I guess there is one big problem with my suggestion. Nobody would turn up to action Mother's Day and the sellers of doves and olive branches would blow all their dough.