mothering

[ muhth-er-ing ]

noun

1. the nurturing of a child by a mother or in the way that a mother does:

   I'm so relieved to be finally able to do the mothering of my children in my own home.

2. the act of caring for or protecting like a mother, sometimes in an excessive way:

   Even though her cold wasn't better yet, she was getting tired of his mothering.

3. (in rural England) the custom of visiting one's parents on Laetare Sunday with a present.

Word History and Origins

Origin of mothering¹

First recorded in 1640–50; mother ¹ + -ing ¹

Example Sentences

A lot of the things she did were very hurtful to her boys but it was all mixed up with her incredible warmth and wonderful mothering skills.

From Time

Some popular TV shows and films offer much more complicated portraits of mothering and comment on the many frustrations and disappointments and imperfections that this experience entails.

From Vox

In other words, the gap in mothering time may be shrinking between less-educated and well-educated moms.

From Science News

They gave birth and then were thrown into mothering as if it were a journey that one should be forced to embark on all alone.

From Time

Making mothering and working an either/or robs us all of the powerful contributions mothers make to our economy.

From The Daily Beast

At the beginning of the series, she had a husband in prison; she had kids that required a great deal of hands-on mothering.

From The Daily Beast

They are now raising a 5-year-old boy who Jennifer is incapable of mothering.

From The Daily Beast

But the problem, says Badinter, is how those values have changed—morphing into a style of mothering she calls “crushing.”

From The Daily Beast

And then, of course, there was poor Hester Prynne—branded with a scarlet letter for mothering a child with another man.

From The Daily Beast

He was a boy of eighteen, aching over his first love affair; and she was divinely mothering him.

From Project Gutenberg

For behind the mothering words lurked, he knew, the other self that any minute would return.

From Project Gutenberg

And a hint of mothering contentment stole sweetly over him behind this shadowy yet genuine consolation.

From Project Gutenberg

She smiled lazily as she reflected that he would take to mothering; his curly hair begged to be smoothed and tousled.

From Project Gutenberg

The little maid repaid him with a passionate love and a quaint mothering care tender and infinitely comforting to the lonely man.

From Project Gutenberg