The protective behaviour of a mother towards her child.
Nurturing or protective behaviour reminiscent of that performed by a literal mother.
1912 , Volume 24 , , The Mother's Pension Law , The institution in the past has done monumental work harboring the homeless, mothering the homeless, mothering the motherless, caring for the poor and dependent
1970 , July 31 , Leonard McCombe , Big business tangles with day care problems , "If we must choose between teaching and mothering," says one teacher, "we take care of mothering first."
1905, John Brand, William Carew Hazlitt, Faiths and folklore: a dictionary of national beliefs, Vol 2 Chapter National Faiths, Mothering-.—In former days, when the Roman Catholic was the established religion, it was the custom for people to visit their Mother Church on MidLent Sunday, and to make their offerings at the high altar. ...the now remaining practice of Mothering, or going to visit parents upon Mid-Lent Sunday, is really owing to that good old custom.
1894 , March 1894, Volume 21, Part 1 , Mary B. Merrill , Mothering Sunday , "Mothering Sunday," the fourth Sunday in Lent, when absent sons and daughters — particularly the young apprentices — would return to their homes with some little present for both parents, but more especially for the mother. ...Imagine the ... pride of the mother in the simple gift, and the admiration of the small brothers and sisters who gathered around and longed for the time when they also would be out in the great unknown world and could come "a-mothering."
