I really enjoyed this old piece on older mums written by a grown up child of one. Funny what you learn! And I always thought Teddy Roosevelt was such a diplomatic and eloquent figure.

In the early part of this century, medics intimated that delaying motherhood could lead to all kinds of nervous diseases, including false or hysteric pregnancies known as “puff” babies. Teddy Roosevelt singled out mothers of big families as the ultimate role models for young women. In a 1903 presidential address, he claimed that any woman who balked at having children was a “criminal against the race” and an “object of contemptuous abhorrence.”

Dearie me!

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