Celebrating the Freedom Fighters on Mother’s Day
NZDSOS recognises the importance of mothers and wants to acknowledge all mothers this Mother’s Day. Without mothers we (humanity) would not exist. The vast majority of mothers are fiercely protective of their children and want to do everything possible to keep them happy and healthy.
These last three ‘Covid years’ have been challenging for everyone, but particularly for mothers with their overarching concern being how best to look after their children. There have been so many threats and such a significant amount of conflicting information, so many questions and unknowns.
How much of a risk was Covid infection for the children? Should children be wearing masks? Are there downsides to having a face covered all day? Should young people be staying home or is it better for them to be at school or socialising with friends? Will they really kill Grandma if they give her a hug? Why are the playgrounds all taped up? Aren’t sunshine, fresh air and exercise beneficial? How will school work and adult work both get done etc. etc.?
Many mothers were troubled and exhausted as they tried to negotiate all these questions. And then… there was the vaccine question.
Should my child get a covid vaccine? Why are the consequences if we don’t comply – being kicked out of sport, and potentially school and the rest of society  –  so harsh? Am I being overprotective wanting to wait? There’s no long-term data so how do I know my children will be OK in 10 years’ time? Is my intuition correct when it says don’t allow that needle in their arm, or am I causing them to suffer socially for no reason?
Some Mums believed it was obvious, the best way to protect the young people was to get them vaccinated. Other mothers were not so sure and sought out information, looked at the science, listened to a variety of often-conflicting ‘experts’ and swayed this way and that. For others, an alarm immediately went off at the suggestion of vaccination particularly when significant coercion e.g. being banned from sports and other social activities, was involved.
So on mother’s day, we say that thing that can be used as a guide in all these situations is gut feeling. Everyone has some degree of this, whatever it is called – intuition, instinct, sixth sense. For some it is strong and the main guiding force in their life, for others it might be an easily-ignored, occasional quiet whisper, but it is a sufficiently important concept that there is even a version of it specifically for mothers – maternal instinct.
Maternal instinct is one of the main forces that have got humanity to where it is. We encourage mothers to listen to it.
We want to acknowledge all the mothers, today on mother’s day and every day, who have been making difficult decisions on behalf of their children and we know that decisions have been made with the best of intentions.
We are also aware though, that we have been misled and a number of mothers have made decisions on the basis of partial information, government lies or in the absence of important information. As a result, some mothers have experienced heart breaking losses through miscarriage, stillbirth, neonatal death, loss of a child, teenager or adult child. Our heart goes out to these mothers who were doing all they could to protect their children.
We also acknowledge that a number of mothers themselves, suffered significantly due to the Covid response, often complying to feed or provide for their children. Sadly, some have been lost to adverse effects from covid vaccines, whether they have been officially recognised or not and we feel for their families on Mother’s Day.
