SARAH VINE: Enjoy being a mother today before the concept goes the way of the dodo

Today, as if you didn’t know from the millions of marketing emails you’ve probably received over the last few weeks selling you everything from bath salts to sleep aids, is Mother’s Day. A joyous annual celebration of motherhood, not to mention a great excuse to pick up Whispering Angel at a discount at your local grocery store.

Across the country, moms will be sitting up in bed bleary-eyed and presented with trays laden with cards, flowers, and an assortment of more-or-less edible breakfast attempts.

But at the risk of sounding ungrateful (which I emphatically am not: my dear daughter Beatrice, I cannot thank you enough for your gift of an Oliver Bonas aroma diffuser – it will go a long way in combating the ‘smell’ of your football’s soccer ball). dear bro boots), if the world really wants to celebrate moms everywhere, we might as well start by ditching the schmaltz and grand commercial nods and showing a little more respect.

Where to start? The recent decision by several NHS Trusts in England to ban the use of gas and air during labor due to concerns about perfectly manageable risks to hospital staff?

Or the fact that women are repeatedly denied epidurals or made to feel guilty for requesting them due to a midwifery culture that glorifies ‘natural’ childbirth?

Or how about the fact that mothers who can’t or, alas, don’t want to breastfeed (after all, it’s a choice) feel mean and irresponsible? The moment you become a mother, no: the moment you realize you are pregnant, the world decides that it belongs to you. Everything about your life, your choices, your decisions, seemingly becomes the exclusive domain of others.

Whether you do sleep training or just go with the flow: judgment. Naughty step or the so-called positive parenting: judgment. Stay home, go back to work: trial, trial, trial. In every corner there is always someone who knows better. Hilariously, they often appear to be male. Meanwhile, you’re just trying to get through the day.

But all this is understood, and as women we are used to it. And the rewards, at least for most, far outweigh the frustrations, which in any case are usually temporary and fade with age and experience. I wouldn’t trade my two for anything.

Lately though, we mothers and women have been attacked from a whole new angle, by a whole new group of people who think they know what’s best for us and can somehow hijack our identities. A group that not only wants to dictate our behavior, but also the fundamental meaning of our existence.

People who, if they get their way, will eventually deny us the right to call ourselves mothers. People who have already eliminated the term ‘woman’, preferring to reduce my sex to a series of organs, labeling us ‘people with a uterus’ or ‘menstruating people’ in the name of so-called ‘inclusivity’. And now they are doing the same with mothers. We must now call ourselves ‘birth givers’ or ‘biological parents’, and (assuming we do) ‘nurse’ instead of breastfeeding.

Across the country, moms will be sitting up in bed bleary-eyed and presented with trays laden with cards, flowers and an assortment of more-or-less edible breakfast attempts (file image)

We no longer give birth in ‘maternity’ hospitals because such things are considered offensive. Instead, our maternity wards are renamed ‘perinatal’ wards, and our mother’s milk is ‘human’ milk. Mother and baby groups are becoming increasingly rare, not because of funding cuts, but because the very concept is seen as discriminatory against the small minority of trans advocates who increasingly seem to make rules for the majority.

And just as these progressives believe that gender is a construct, a feast that is moveable, interchangeable, multifaceted, and can be altered at will, they also believe that having babies is not the exclusive privilege of mothers, and that anyone who claims otherwise is a fanatic and a transphobic, and not just, perhaps, an ordinary mother who is a little sick and tired of being told what she can and cannot be by society and who wishes she weren’t made to feel like her very existence is inherently offensive.

I have no problem with how someone wants to identify themselves, none at all. What I do disagree with is the idea that in order for some people to feel better about themselves, a large number of us have to give up our identities and deny the very essence of who we are: mothers.

That, really, is why we should celebrate Mother’s Day more than ever. That is why today, despite all the commercialism, it is so important. Because if things continue as they are, if these bold ‘pioneers’ of the genre have their way (which I suspect they will), the concept itself could soon go the way of the dodo. ‘Mom’ may turn out to be a word that simply doesn’t exist. And I, for one, will miss him.

Don’t take that advice, Gwynnie…

Gwyneth Paltrow hit back at critics who accused her of “starving” after revealing her diet, which appears to consist mostly of coffee, bone broth and vegetables. Her excuse is that she eats like this by medical prescription because she has had Covid for a long time. Gwyneth dear, if I were you I would get a second opinion.

Gwyneth Paltrow hit back at critics who accused her of “starving” after revealing her diet, which appears to consist mostly of coffee, bone broth and vegetables.

Gary Lineker made a triumphant return to Match Of The Day last night after an absence last Saturday, when the BBC was also forced to replace Football Focus with Bargain Hunt after presenters boycotted the show in solidarity with Lineker. I wonder, was it a random choice? Or was someone at Broadcasting House making a not-so-subtle comment about the cost of certain high-profile hosts?

Officials at the Passport Office are threatening to go on strike for more than a month, meaning it could take weeks for British citizens to receive new documents. Business as usual, then?

For me, the most pressing question about the impending coronation is not whether or not Harry and Meghan will steal the limelight (they obviously will), but rather what will take the place of ‘Poulet Reine Elizabeth’, aka Coronation Chicken, my sandwich filling. favorite. and the dish created for the Queen’s Coronation by Constance Spry in 1953. Having had the privilege of dining with the King and closely observing his eating habits, I would venture to say that any equivalent would have to involve a soft chicken egg, very possibly with a little paprika on top. And maybe some steamed spinach. ‘Oeuf Roi Charles’ anyone?

wokery can’t hide racism

In a spectacular example of twisted thinking, the former president of the National Union of Students, Shaima Dallali, who was fired for her anti-Semitic views, alleges discrimination because her pro-Palestinian bias should be considered a ‘protected status’. belief’ under the Equality Act. He once tweeted ‘Khaybar Khaybar Oh Jews, Muhammad’s army will return’, a reference to a 7th century massacre of Jews (he has since apologized) and accused a Jordanian preacher who revealed that Hamas was firing rockets from residential areas as a ‘dirty Zionist’. ‘. Sorry, but since when has outright racism been a ‘protected belief’?

Jeremy Hunt’s ‘Four Es’ budget tagline ‘business, education, employment and everywhere’ reminded me a bit of the title of that weird movie that won every Oscar this year, Everything Everywhere All At Once. Both, it must be said, equally disconcerting.

I am glad that the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for its Commissioner for the Rights of the Child, mother of 23 (five of her own) Maria Lvova-Belova

Delighted that the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin for ordering the abduction of Ukrainian children. I am glad that you have also issued an order to your Commissioner for Children’s Rights, mother of 23 (five children) Maria Lvova-Belova, who has bragged about adopting a child from Mariupol, a city razed to the ground by the Russians. bombs, including one that hit a maternity hospital. She more than anyone should understand the pain that she is inflicting. How a self-respecting mother could do that to another mother is beyond me. Negligible.

English? nope just rude

Hugh Grant’s friends have come to his defense after THAT interview, claiming he was just “being English”. Nice try, but no. After writing briefly about my own experience of being on the wrong side of Grant’s tongue on Wednesday, several readers emailed back to recount their own experiences of his cocky, diva-like behavior. None of which, I’m afraid, has anything to do with English.