Letter: Mothering: a full-time job

Sir: Suzanne Moore wonders what mothers did before they went to work (Comment, 20 May). Being a mother is work and no other job requires the same diversity of skills: being able to negotiate, arbitrate, manage one's time and answer a range of questions from why does an aeroplane remain in the sky to who will bury me when I die.

For the child, shouldn't it be their right to be mothered by their mother? Why do women have children only to hand them over to be cared for by someone else? Going out to work is the easy option; your day is structured for you, the job description written. I would challenge anyone to produce an adequate job description for "mother of two", unless, of course, the main responsibility was paying the child-minder.

LESLEY WILLIAMS

Kings Stanley, Gloucestershire