Last week, people in Britain celebrated Mothering Sunday – an unabashedly Christian recognition of this unique vocation – and I have been reading a frank, funny and thoughtful book on being a mother, Good Enough is Good Enough, by Colleen Duggan (Ave Maria Press).

There is pressure on mothers from all sides: For Catholics there is the example of Our Lady, which can seem intimidating until you realise that she is a loving mother to all mothers rather than an impossible standard for ordinary mothers to attain, alongside the well-intentioned yet smug stance of other, seemingly more successful, parents. In the secular world it is harder: you have to prove yourself in a career as well as at home, struggling with the myth that you can “have it all.”