A Mother's Day: Today's Women Seek More Respect for the Tradition

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Cheryl Wetzstein is a staff writer for The Washington Times.

The millions of flowers, cards, and phone calls shared on Mother's Day say it all: Motherhood is honored, cherished, and respected across the nation. Mothers, for the most part, accept these tokens with smiles, laughs, and even tears of joy.

But if the new crop of mothers is any indication, many American mothers are in the mood for something a little more long-lasting than a bouquet of flowers.

Roses are sweet, they say, but public respect for being a stay-at-home mom would be even sweeter. Loving phone calls are great, but job offers to work part-time at home when the kids are still infants would also be appreciated.

The importance of mothers and mothering is still underestimated in American culture, said Judith Stadtman Tucker, founder of the 1-year-old Mothers Movement Online.

"Americans are deeply enamored of the notions of independence and self- sufficiency. We raise our children to be honest, respectful, and productive, but our principal obsession is to raise our children to become independent," Tucker said.

There's just one "catch" in this scenario, she said, which is that "even the most strident self-made man or woman requires a prolonged duration of constant, attentive care at the beginning--and usually at the end--of life."

All human lives have periods of total dependence, interdependence, and independence, she added. This means that our society should value …