Mother’s Day can be complicated—but looking beyond the holiday can open up something deeper. Columnist Tina Powell reflects on the idea of the “motherline” and how it can offer a more expansive, inclusive way to understand connection, identity and care.

Remember when you were a kid and you asked your parents, “Why is there Mother’s and Father’s Day, but there’s no Children’s Day?” The typical response was, “Because every day is Children’s Day.” Hardly—I still had to make my bed and do the dishes, so what kind of celebration was that?

As a maternal theory scholar, I have a mixed relationship with Mother’s Day. On one hand, I think, “Yes! Let me sleep in, bring me breakfast in bed, shower me with gifts and tell me on loop how I am the best mother ever!” But then, I also take issue with a “holiday” that glorifies exhaustion and essentializes the undervalued, unpaid labour of mothers. Plus, thanks to social media, it’s now a competition—who gets the most glowing online tributes from their children, who can post their gifts the fastest, and so on. This, of course, only serves to heighten the grief and isolation experienced by bereaved mothers, bereaved children, women without children—by circumstance, choice, miscarriage or infertility—and, of course, those who are estranged from their mothers or children because of conflict, abuse, neglect or other traumatic situations.

So, with Mother’s Day 2026 just around the corner, I thought I’d offer a fresh perspective on this somewhat loaded maternal celebration—which, contrary to popular belief, was not just created by the greeting card industry.

The Mother of All Holidays

Mother’s Day, as it is recognized today, was reportedly founded in 1908 by American Anna Jarvis to memorialize and honour her mother’s commitment to community service and women’s advocacy. By 1914, it was a national holiday in the U.S., and Canada quickly followed suit. That said, festivals to honour mothers date back to ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, where mother goddesses such as Isis, Cybele and Rhea were celebrated. In addition, many world religions commemorate mothers with special days such as Mothering Sunday (Christianity), Navaratri (Hinduism), 11th of Cheshvan (Judaism), and more. As such, relatively speaking, the idea of exclusively honouring one’s individual mother is a recent event.

Which raises a larger question: what if we expanded our understanding of “mother” altogether?

Think Motherline, Not Mother

The concept of the motherline came to author and psychologist Naomi Ruth Lowinsky whilst interviewing mothers of adult daughters. She shares, “These women were telling their stories in the middle of their lives from their considerable experience as both daughters and mothers. I found as I interviewed them about their daughters, they spontaneously referred to their mothers and grandmothers in the flow of their thought.” Lowinsky claims it was as if the women’s mothers and grandmothers entered the room as the women talked about their daughters. So, it’s safe to say that, when we embrace our motherline, we not only gain the ancestral knowledge of our foremothers, but we also get a life-cycle perspective that connects us to our daughters.

Importantly, the motherline is not limited to women. Anyone—regardless of gender—can trace, explore and draw meaning from the maternal lines that shape their identity. Sons, fathers and non-binary individuals can also engage with the stories, relationships and inherited wisdom that flow through their maternal lineage.

Lowinsky adds that, “Mother is the first world we know, the source of our lives and our stories.” Fiona Green, a retired professor and senior scholar at the University of Winnipeg, asserts that a motherline is a source of strength, wisdom and authority for mothers that “grounds them in their knowledge.” But what if your biological motherline is disrupted or severed for some reason? What if the familial connection is weak? Can a motherline be reclaimed?

Finding Your Motherline

My motherline was permanently severed before I was born. My mother was placed in foster care when she was around three years old. That meant I never knew my grandmother or any of my relatives on that side of the family. I do vaguely recall meeting my mother’s birth sister once as a child. Needless to say, there were no family photos on the mantle, no time-tested recipes passed down, no stories about my mother growing up and no family history to anchor my identity.

Fortunately, Andrea O’Reilly, a professor at York University in Toronto and founder of Motherhood Studies, says that all is not lost. Regardless of the circumstances, a woman can resurrect her motherline and “reclaim aspects of the feminine self,” even if she is disconnected from her familial and ancestral motherline. But how exactly? According to Lowinsky, reclaiming one’s motherline is not linear—it’s entirely individualistic, and you can start anywhere. She adds, “There is no right or wrong way to find your motherline—there is only your way.”

Ways to Celebrate Your Motherline

These are just some of the ways I went about reclaiming my motherline and creating my bond to what Lowinsky calls “the ancient lore of women.” You, of course, can start with your own mother, but there is an exciting world to explore beyond that.

  1. Conduct genealogical research. If you are like me and don’t know much about your biological family, use the many ancestry research tools and government databases available to discover what you can. With these resources, I not only connected with an uncle and five cousins, I also received a photo of my great-grandmother. Yes, I got goosebumps when I saw her face for the very first time.
  2. Connect with other family storytellers. Reach out to family friends, neighbours, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews—anyone who knows your family stories and/or has photos to share.
  3. Express your motherline creatively. Although I have not yet been able to locate much information about my grandmother, I have started writing letters to her. Lowinsky encourages using techniques of active imagination, such as journal writing, painting or drawing, to activate the motherline sources in your psyche. She says, “It is always amazing to me how much we know of our foremothers’ experience.”
  4. Create your own motherline. If the purpose of the motherline is to locate a grounding source of strength, wisdom, authority and knowledge, you can create your own feminine crew of maternal mentors. My personal motherline includes women who are young and old, real and fictitious, alive and deceased, famous and unknown, mortal and goddess. My study is decorated with photographs of them, books they have written and statues honouring them.
  5. Celebrate your motherline on Mother’s Day. This Mother’s Day, I will be surrounded by my familial, ancestral and created motherline. Whether chatting with my daughter from afar, brunching with my granddaughter, placing flowers at my mother’s grave, rearranging the goddess statues in my study or reading Michelle Obama’s memoir, my heart and my spirit will be full. As Heatherash Amara, author of Warrior Goddess Training, reminds us, “For thousands of years, in tribes and villages around the world women have come together in circles to share, to teach, to listen, to learn. The pulse of these women still beats with us. Their wisdom flows through time, whispering to us the song of female connection and beauty. We only need to stop long enough and put our ear to our heart to hear the call.”

I hope this inspires, comforts and sparks joy as you think about Mother’s Day this year.