What's a Parent's Role?

Take our Authoritative Parenting Test

Find a family therapist near me

Motherhood is a psychologically challenging experience that can help us learn about ourselves.

When we become a mother, we may have a range of feelings and experiences that are new to us.

Fairy tales can help us identify the kinds of universal patterns we might be living out as we mother.

As Mother’s Day approaches, I’m reminded of a clip of a mother orangutan trying to corral her unruly toddler. In it, the beleaguered mother chases her child repeatedly before she finally manages to drag him after her by his foot. When my son was small, I watched the video on repeat.

Part of the appeal was undoubtedly the hilarity of it, but the video also captivated me because, well, I could relate. My son had been just like that baby orangutan, frequently escaping from me in public places so that I had to race after him. There are many things about being a mother to a hominid, it seems, that are universal.

The Swiss psychologist Carl Jung coined the term “archetype” to refer to innate patterns of human experience. Images of such patterns can be found in myths, fairy tales, and other ancient stories. When we have children, we find ourselves living out one of the great archetypes—that of the Mother.

Mothering is an enormously complex psychological experience. It confronts us with a range of emotions that we might not encounter elsewhere in our lives. Some days, we find ourselves suffused with the energy of the Good Mother, gazing beatifically at our sleeping infant, much like those Renaissance paintings of Madonna and child. Other days, when we’ve just lost it on our squabbling kids, we might feel like we’ve........

© Psychology Today