A Modest Rant… by Grace Burrowes

I’m ambivalent about the holiday we call “Mother’s Day,” and now that everybody has called Mom and gotten flowers, I will air some of that ambivalence. For one day a year, Mom gets breakfast in bed (maybe), or she’ll find the house clean by virtue of Dad and kids pitching in. Maybe she’ll be queen for a day, get some cards, a few flowers.

Lovely gestures, and no doubt they are the result of sincere sentiment on the part of those who make them.

But what about motherhood generally—parenting g...