The Other

Here is a term that suffers from terrible branding. Stepmother.
Those who created that word mustn’t have realized:

1/ How ugly it sounds.
2/ How misleading it is. A stepmother is neither a mother, nor a step away from being one.
3/ How much of a stigma it would eventually carry, leaving in its wake a trail of famous stepmonsters and other blended families horror stories.

We hear about the horrible ones, yet the good ones stay quiet.

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So first, crap branding.
Second, crap marketing budget.

Motherhood is a market, one that’s as legitimate as it gets. From pregnancy (cue image of tilted head, soft smile and hand cupping belly) to breastfeeding (or not!) to nannies to schools all the way to the feared empty nest (cue image of a greying couple waving their young adult goodbye) there are whole supermarket aisles, publications, movies and brands to reassure mothers that they exist, each step of the way.

Even fatherhood, long ignored, is slowly getting there. Being rebranded and discussed and marketed.