I feel motherhood needs to go beyond simply a physical thing. There needs to be the ability to train and help a child fledge to be a caring, successful person. Sometime it really does hurt the mother more than the child. After divorcing her husband and moving to the Pacific NW my late partner's daughter once told her "mom, remember all those time I said I hate you? Thank you." Her motto was discipline first then love. Her kids really loved their mom (and she them) but they also knew she meant business.

Pregnancy and delivery is not motherhood .
Neither alone makes u a mother . Or a father . Or a parent , period .
Is years of selfless acts and wrinkles and worries and energy and time and money , all given to your child , without conditions and any type of abuse , that makes u a “ mother “. A parent .

And a man can be a wonderful mother too . Mothering , providing your child w love and support , is not something that only a woman can do The best .

I never had a mother to raise me or anything . My father raised both my sister and I all r lives , he was a dad worthy 10 mothers actually for me ♥️.
I made a choice to not reproduce while married for 13 yrs . I just knew .

Some times I laugh when coworkers call me “ yes mother “, some x I just give them the middle finger response . My work kids are on their late 20s , annoying pests !, who come for work or personal matter advices . Some on their late 30s and I have mentored them for more than a decade
Today I got 5 “ happy mother day “ texts , I responded to ea one of them w a middle finger gif , but inside me I smiled and felt good ♥️.

A ''mother'' is whomever stays up all night to care for a child with chicken-pox...who mops the child's vomit off the floor...who wears the same pair of shoes for a year so she can buy new shoes for the child....who stands in proud tears when the child wins a spelling prize after she spent hours coaching the correct answers. A ''mother'' can also be a man...or a grandparent...or even an older sibling.