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

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