Most of us take our mothers for granted don’t we? Not through any lack of affection or disrespect, of course, but simply because, as children and beyond, she is always there for us. Parents shape our lives and have a huge influence on how we develop as human beings and our mother is undoubtedly the single most important person in all our lives. She carried us for nine uncomfortable (I would assume!) months and brought us into the world bestowing upon us her totally unconditional love and devotion.

The father may traditionally be the breadwinner and the nominal head of the family but the mother is the catalyst. She holds the family together. She is at the centre of our lives and we gravitate around her like planets around the Sun. There may be exceptions but a poor mother is a rarity.

We take our mothers for granted because we can. Her love is guaranteed and her loyalty, strength and dependability sustain us and guide us through the turbulent waters of childhood and adolescence. She’s the one who cleans the cuts and bruises, comforts us and wipes away the tears when things go wrong. She’s the one who nurses us when we are ill, who takes us to the doctor when we’re off colour and to the dentist when we need a tooth filling. Even when childhood is long past she continues to support and help us throughout our lives until death do us part. We trust her implicitly and let’s face it, if you can’t trust your mother who can you trust?

For a mother, bearing a child is the start of a lifelong sentence (in a positive sense hopefully!) and the beginning of a new life of unquestioning and unquestioned sacrifice. A mother never ceases to worry, fret and care for her offspring. And what does she get in return? Sometimes, or so it must appear, other than sleep deprivation, constant anxiety, worry lines and stretch marks, very little!

Mothering Sunday, or Mother’s Day as it is now called, was traditionally the day when English children honoured their mothers with small gifts, usually posies of flowers and demonstrated that on at least one day out of 365 love is not necessarily a one way street! We don’t always show it, of course, but I suspect our mothers know how grateful and appreciative we really are, not just on that one Sunday in March, but throughout the year. Thankfully, a mother isn’t just for one day; she is quite literally, as the adverts say, for life.