Let’s hear it for all mums

EVEN beyond the obvious biological reality that humanity would be doomed without them, it’s hard to imagine a world without mothers.

They give us life, protect and nourish us during our vulnerable early years, and then teach us everything we need to know to be able to take our first babysteps into the world.

There are minor exceptions of course, but it is immensely likely that it was your mother who mostly taught you how to speak, use the toilet, eat in a respectable manner, brush your teeth, and dress yourself.

It was your mother who reprimanded you when you were naughty — or just untamed and unknowing — and taught you how to follow some kind of code of etiquette or morality that meant you could get along with others and fit into broader society without breaking things.

She sang you to sleep and admired your beauty and innocence back before you probably lost a little of both. As you grew, she counselled you and listened to your problems or gave you blunt life advice.

And then after having to spend nearly every waking hour with you making sure you were alright — a commitment that often ensured she did not have much of a life outside of you — she had to watch as you walked into the big world to come back less and less.

Science tells us that the brains of babies (such as some countries’ orphans) that grow up without physical touch and emotional attention develop differently and those children tend to have severe emotional and behavioural problems later on.

So if you’re a relatively sound and functional individual — even now that you think you’re self-made or worldly, big or tough — it’s because you’re your mother’s son or daughter.

Remember your dear old mum this weekend. Basically everyone’s got one. But you’re no less lucky to have had one.