At a time when more and more women are breaking the rules of a rigidly patriarchal society, when spirits seem at last to be awakening and lifestyles are blossoming in a claimed eclecticism, the condition of mother could at last escape the unique and reductive schema to which it has long been confined. If there are a thousand ways to become a mother, the path of love is now the only guide to your own truth...
Whether it's an innate vocation or a senseless act of love, becoming a mother, however daunting, is no longer the prerogative of a category of established women. In its infancy, but led by a determined generation, society is breaking down gender boundaries and other stereotypes, to promote the advent of a new mother in whom everyone can recognize themselves.
Free in our parenting choices
Biological, adoptive, natural or medically-assisted mother, mother-in-law, wife or single mother... the terminologies are numerous, but they do not suffice to describe the infinite diversity of each person's situation.
However, while they can take on a variety of forms that are less and less controversial, family and parenthood are still the focus of much attention. Particularly subject to the assessments of third parties, mothers are scrutinized and judged from the very first weeks of pregnancy. Becoming a mother is not a duty, but it does entail its share of choices. The best food for the baby in utero, whether to breastfeed or bottle-feed, whether to co-sleep or cradle the baby alone, whether to potty-train or prepare homemade purées: judgments of varying degrees of benevolence about the child's supposed well-being are all too common, even calling into question the mother herself when her choices are judged, often very subjectively, to be inconsistent.
If Élhée campaigns for the recognition of a contemporary, modern and liberated family, it is above all to preserve the free will of parents, and of mothers in particular. Free from clichés, this leading role can only be guided by the instinctive, primary and elementary feelings that unquestionably bind a child to its mother.
