Mother’s Day is often packaged as a celebration of love with flowers, brunch reservations and gratitude. But that version of Mother’s Day is incomplete. Within Cornerstone Housing for Women’s shelter and housing programs, Mother’s Day is not just a celebration, it is heavy, complicated, and, at times, deeply painful. Ignoring that reality doesn’t honour mothers—it leaves some mothers behind.
Every day, Cornerstone walks alongside women and gender diverse people navigating motherhood under some of the most challenging circumstances imaginable. Many are mothers who do not have custody of their children — not because they don’t love them, but because housing instability, safety concerns, mental health struggles, substance use and systemic failures have made it nearly impossible to stay together. These are not isolated situations. They are the predictable outcomes of systems that continue to fail families.
Photo: LA Williams
Mother’s Day can be a glaring reminder of what is missing. Some of the women we serve are grieving: their children, their relationships, their own mothers and the futures they once imagined. It shows up in the quiet ache of a photo tucked under a pillow in a shelter bed. I also hear the grief in the voices of the mothers who I talk to on the phone who might be in the throes of panic, guilt, and pain as they try and navigate supporting their daughter who is in our shelter, struggling with mental health issues or substances. At Cornerstone, we hold space for all of it.
And yet, despite all of this, these mothers persist. Cornerstone walks alongside mothers who are doing the exhausting, often invisible work of rebuilding their lives – fighting to regain custody of their children, to heal, and to be reconnected with their children again. Their resilience is not something to romanticize; it’s something that should make us question why they have to be this resilient in the first place.
This is what motherhood looks like, too — and it deserves to be seen.
If we’re serious about honoring mothers, then we need to look beyond individual strength and towards collective care and responsibility. It’s about systems. The lack of affordable housing. The inaccessibility of childcare. The gaps in mental health and substance use supports. The barriers to family reunification. These are not side issues, they are the conditions shaping whether mothers and children can stay together and thrive.
As we approach Mother’s Day, I invite our community to expand its understanding of what it means to celebrate mothers. That means holding space not just for joyful stories and gratitude, but for grief, complexity and ongoing struggle. It means recognizing that real support goes beyond kind words — it requires action, investment, and accountability.
Because imagining a different world for mothers isn’t enough. We have to be willing to build it so mothers can thrive and create the lives they want for themselves.
To all mothers — biological, stepmothers, foster mothers, caregivers, guardians, and everything in between: we see you and you matter.
Celebrating mothers means confronting what’s failing them
Mother’s Day is often packaged as a celebration of love with flowers, brunch reservations and gratitude. But that version of Mother’s Day is incomplete. Within Cornerstone Housing for Women’s shelter and housing programs, Mother’s Day is not just a celebration, it is heavy, complicated, and, at times, deeply painful. Ignoring that reality doesn’t honour mothers—it leaves some mothers behind.
Every day, Cornerstone walks alongside women and gender diverse people navigating motherhood under some of the most challenging circumstances imaginable. Many are mothers who do not have custody of their children — not because they don’t love them, but because housing instability, safety concerns, mental health struggles, substance use and systemic failures have made it nearly impossible to stay together. These are not isolated situations. They are the predictable outcomes of systems that continue to fail families.
Mother’s Day can be a glaring reminder of what is missing. Some of the women we serve are grieving: their children, their relationships, their own mothers and the futures they once imagined. It shows up in the quiet ache of a photo tucked under a pillow in a shelter bed. I also hear the grief in the voices of the mothers who I talk to on the phone who might be in the throes of panic, guilt, and pain as they try and navigate supporting their daughter who is in our shelter, struggling with mental health issues or substances. At Cornerstone, we hold space for all of it.
And yet, despite all of this, these mothers persist. Cornerstone walks alongside mothers who are doing the exhausting, often invisible work of rebuilding their lives – fighting to regain custody of their children, to heal, and to be reconnected with their children again. Their resilience is not something to romanticize; it’s something that should make us question why they have to be this resilient in the first place.
This is what motherhood looks like, too — and it deserves to be seen.
If we’re serious about honoring mothers, then we need to look beyond individual strength and towards collective care and responsibility. It’s about systems. The lack of affordable housing. The inaccessibility of childcare. The gaps in mental health and substance use supports. The barriers to family reunification. These are not side issues, they are the conditions shaping whether mothers and children can stay together and thrive.
As we approach Mother’s Day, I invite our community to expand its understanding of what it means to celebrate mothers. That means holding space not just for joyful stories and gratitude, but for grief, complexity and ongoing struggle. It means recognizing that real support goes beyond kind words — it requires action, investment, and accountability.
Because imagining a different world for mothers isn’t enough. We have to be willing to build it so mothers can thrive and create the lives they want for themselves.
To all mothers — biological, stepmothers, foster mothers, caregivers, guardians, and everything in between: we see you and you matter.
Anne Marie Hopkins is executive director of Cornerstone Housing for Women
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