Judging Mothers

I read an article today in the Weekend Herald about a book by Brett Paesel. It sounded interesting enough, but there was one passage by the journalist writing the article that really stood out to me. I wish I had written it myself. I will replicate it here:

Nothing provokes us like motherhood. Nothing divides us quite as violently. Mothers are perceived to onhabit a separate world from non-mothers, a world that's subject to stringent regulation, to harsh judgement, and to close scrutiny by the state, by the media, by the neighbours. We judge mothers constantly - the ones we know, the ones we don't. We judge them on how harshly the do or don't reprimand their children in supermarkets and on buses. We judge themon how much tv we theing they let their children watch, on the kind of food we think they feed them; on how much they swear in front of them; and how flagrantly they use their BlackBerries. We judge them on the name they've burdened their kids with, on the toys they let them have, on the tastes they encourage in the. We judge them for the way the dress their kids, and the way they cut their hair; we judge them on their bugaboos... (Polly Vernon)

Isn't that just the best truth you have read for ages? it really made me think of the ones I am guilty of - for we are all guilty of these things.

But when it comes down to it, which of these is important? And who are we to say how to love your children? Of course we have to act when there is abuse and neglect, but if a child is fed, watered, clothed and housed, surely all that matters then is that they are safe and loved?