to start a list about all the fucking brilliant mothers there are in the world?

[WilfSell]

Just to give the supplement journos some new angles instead of their tired old cliches?

Hmm, shall we begin?

Indira Gandhi.

If Thatch had been a sahm, maybe her children wouldn't have become such embarrassments. Who knows

What? Alison Lapper is there because she's a mother and a brilliant artist. What's that to do with spelling out that she's disabled and a parent?

I think it's a difficult question to answer, to me a woman who is a brilliant mother can only have that title if what she does to earn it is related to the well being of her children, if she is a mother anyway and makes outstanding contributions to society or charity then I would think of her as a successful woman rather than mother as many childless women could surely be in that category of making great contributions?

Lisa from Steps
Lisa Moorish
Sadie Frost
Meg Matthews
Mutya

But what if these successful women are in fact shite mothers??? How do you know? How could you know. It doesn't make sense.

I agree, I don't see the correlation between brilliance and motherhood. Surely they are just brilliant women.

The question makes my head hurt TBH.

Charlotte Church

by the way I don't mean she has to be looking after her family, she just has to have positive influence on them eg encourage them, promote their self esteem etc.

Sadie Frost, yes, brilliant mother, wasn't it a child of hers who ended up in hospital after accidentally swallowing an E???

Meg Matthews??? are you joking?

Aren't we just naming celebrity mothers now?

No actually, this is not really making sense.

LoveMyLoveLapTop are you just ticking the names off from Heat magazine?

Mary Wollstonecraft
Emmeline Pankhurst
Cherie Blair
Hillary Clinton
Gwyneth Dunwoody
Paula Radcliffe
Denise Lewis
Mary Rand

Look, the point was the stoopid journos were suggesting that by default, if you were a mother, you couldn't possibly be interested in the world at large, or make a difference beyond that to your own kids etc.

I should have predicted people might want to turn it into a punch up about working mothers etc...

I merely wanted a list of all the women who AS WELL AS DOING THE FANTASTIC WONDERFUL AND ESSENTIAL JOB THAT IS INDEED 'ENOUGH' also manage some other pretty incredible ADDITIONAL achievements.

Natascha McHelhone (sp) Actress

Her husband (gifted surgeon) died last year whilst she was pg with their 3rd child

She has come across with such dignity

Cannot imagine what she must have had to go through in the last year - has since given birth to their 3rd son

I think the really brilliant mothers are probably unknowns and the rest are media wanabees, and anyway journos write whatever they think will get people hissing and booing or clapping and cheering regardless if it's real or a journo theory.

How do we really know ??
Is a good mother the same as a woman who contributes something exceptional to society ?
And Sadie Frost

margarita pracatan

(This is truly an odd idea)

Doesn't mean they are brilliant mothers, sucessful yes.

I was being ironic
How do you know if someone is a 'brilliant' mother
Ask their children

Oh I used to LOVE margarita pracatan!

pointy!
LMAO
I luuurrrve you baby!

No. They're not all wannabes. Nor are they all brilliant mothers. But some of them are mothers who are brilliant.

Whether it is because they are mothers that they are brilliant I know not, nor does it really matter. I think what matters is that many many women achieve lasting heroism and social change and amazing discoveries and cultural excellence and so on while they have children.

Any outsider can make a judgement about how it must have been at the expense of their children. But we don't really know that do we? The fathers wouldn't come in for the same flak would they?

No, that's bollocks! I read the article, and thought it was bollocks, and I understand that it is absolutly possible to be a mother and have a good career, but I do object to your wording in the op, because you have chosen to list people who have been successful and happen to have children too, but described them as brilliant mothers.

I have plenty of mother friends who work, and they are less tied up in toddler groups than me, they are far more in touch with the real world than me, read a paper during the week etc etc. I listen to the Today program and watch the 10 o'clock news, but that's my lot, I spend the majority of my life wiping arses and going to toddler groups. Who is to say whom is the best mother? I spend more time with my dc, but admittedly do fuck all else apart from raising my dc. What working mothers do is amazing, I have a great deal of respect for it, and wouldn't judge it, but working per se does not make them brilliant mothers. Just like not working does not make me a dummy mummy.

ah ha! I see, you meant mothers who are brilliant (st other stuff). Now, that is much clearer.

Habbibu. No. you miss my point unsurprisingly considering I didn't really make it clearly. Alison Lapper is worthy of a mention because, as dictated by Wilf's thread she is a mother and achieves in other stuff.... artist, model etc.

My huffiness was directed at an unnamed post that implied disability+motherhood must be worthy of some kind of accolade (sp?). No matter, it's not relevant to the thread.