When do you become a mother?

Question

Is it when you have the desire to have children, when you conceive a child or when the child is born?
Most convincing answer gets 10 points!
(I really just want to know if I am getting a mother's day gift this year or if I have to wait until next year for one! Lol... only kidding).

Answer 1

You become a mother when you are pregnant. I am 30 weeks and it bothers me when people say things about me "becoming" a mother... I already am. I take care of this baby inside of me, she is alive and kicking. I have the love for her already.. so why would I have to wait until she is born to be considered a mother? I am a mother already.

Answer 2

LOL as far the Mother's Day gift - I told hubby that if I was due after Mother's Day I'd still better get a gift! I'm due right before though, so I'm in the clear. :) And I guess I'd consider myself a mom right now, even though the baby isn't here yet.

My mom was pregnant with me in May, and when my dad told her she wasn't a mom yet she lost it. I was born early, about a week after Mother's Day. I'm pretty sure he got her a gift that year anyway (judging by the fact that she didn't kill him, lol).

EDIT:

I agree with the person above me. You can have children and not really be a "mother." If you begin taking care of your child as soon as you find out you're pregnant, thats when you become a mommy. If you do whatever you want and never take your child's needs into consideration, then you may never really be a mother.

Answer 3

You don't automatically become a mother just because you conceive a child. There are many mothers out there who aren't "mothers" at all. The moment you put your child's welfare above your own, then you are a true mother. That can happen when you very first find out you are pregnant, example, the mother who stops having a drink vs. the person who keeps drinking throughout pregnancy, the mother who stops smoking vs. the person who continues to smoke...mothering is about love but most of all about responsibility and caring for the gift that you have been given...

Answer 4

I believe the earliest you can be a mother is if you are either pregnant or take care of children.

Being a mother is more than just a name... its a way of living and doing things.

I think you can consider yourself a mother during pregnancy because you are taking care of not just you, but a child who depends on your health/well being. It takes a mothers love to give a child the best from the beginning of conception.

Answer 5

Not when you decide to have children ... that wouldn't make any sense to me.
When you conceive - kind of and kind of not. When you care about your unborn child, you have that feeling in your heart, you change your lifestyle for your child, you feel your child in you - literal or not, when you love your child - that's when you're a mother.
You can be pregnant and love your child completely. That's motherhood.
And ... I got a gift on Mother's Day when I was pregnant, and felt like I deserved it.

Answer 6

I think you become a mother whe YOU feel like a mother. With my first son, it was after he was born. I didn't feel like a "mother" until I held him for the first time. Others feel like a mother when they find out they are pregnant. It just all depends on you. When I was pregnant with my second son, I felt like his mother before he was born, but that was probably because I already had one child. I guarded my feelings when I was pregnant with my first. I had this fear in the back of my mind that I would lose him if I thought of myself as a mother before he was born. Kind of like counting your chickens before they hatch.

Answer 7

When you conceive the child, you're the mother to a tiny, perfect little unborn baby.

My friend lost her 1st child to a cord accident and the baby was stillborn at 38 weeks- she's NO LESS a mother than any of us who've delivered a full term baby. There's a tiny little human inside... a real LIVE being.

Answer 8

Hmmmm... that's a pretty loaded question, if I had more time, I'd give a more eloquent answer about what it means to be a mother. But my short answer: when you're child is born. That being said, I still think pregnant women should be able to celebrate mother's day, just don't forget to celebrate your partner on father's day.

Answer 9

From my own experience, I believe that its when my first one was born. I didnt like kids when I was younger. In fact I wasn't even too excited about being pregnant. (maybe it the situation I was because I was leaving my now ex-husband) I never liked to really be around kids. When my daughter was born is when the parental instinct kicked it. I knew I was actually responsible for someone now, and to see this precious baby who is now depending on ME to be there for her really changed my mind. And the fact that she was darn cute. I now know that I am a mother and that was from the first day my first daughter was born.

Answer 10

For me, I became a mother the second I gave birth to my first son. As soon as I saw his little face for the first time, my life changed and I knew I was a mother.