The-Conquest-of-Happiness-by-Bertrand-Russell

as the acquisition of book-learning is concerned, it
is recognised that children can acquire it better
from those who have it than from a mother who
does not have it. But in regard to many other
departments in the care of children this is not
recognised, because the experience required is not
yet recognised. Undoubtedly certain things are
better done by the mother, but as the child gets
older, there will be an increasing number of things
better done by someone else. If this were generally
recognised, mothers would be saved a great deal
of labour which is irksome to them, because it is
not that in which they have professional
competence. A woman who has acquired any kind
of professional skill ought, both for her own sake
and for that of the community, to be free to continue
to exercise this skill in spite of motherhood. She
may be unable to do so during the later months of
pregnancy and during lactation, but a child over
nine months old ought not to form an insuperable
barrier to its mother’s professional activities.
Whenever society demands of a mother sacrifices
to her child which go beyond reason, the mother, if