We all know being a mother is a big job, especially when a mother has one or more sons. Obviously I’ve never been a mother myself; but I watched my own mother work really hard at raising boys—all the while trying to both get it right and making it look effortless at the same time. Regardless of the rest of a family’s structure—meaning whether Dad is around or not—part of a mother’s job is to offer the kind of wisdom and education men just can’t.

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For instance, we want boys to grow up knowing women should be held in the highest regard. Sure, your dad can tell you that. He can model that, even chew you out when you fail at it. But a great Mom is in the unique position of being able to build a relationship with her boys in such a way that she represents all women.

If you’re a boy and treat a girl at school badly, it’s like you just treated Mom badly. It should fill you with shame and disgust to even think about treating Mom badly. With all this in mind, we’re nominating Rebecca Sugar for “Mother of the Year.” If you want to understand why, read her piece in The Spectator, “For my boy on Mother’s Day.”

We insist you read the entire article yourself, but here are a few quotes to help you understand why her story is so important and why Rebecca is so worthy of “Mother of the Year:”

• “This Mother’s Day, instead of booking an overpriced Sunday brunch, I am calling an emergency family meeting. I intend to sit both of my kids down and undo what the schools, the media and our political class are teaching them about 50 percent of the population, namely boys. I don’t need a Mother’s Day gift this year. I prefer my son’s integrity and self-worth be snatched back from the clutches of the identity-politics mob.”
  
• “First on my agenda is assuring my children there is no such thing as ‘toxic masculinity’…I want my son to hear his mother affirm for him that masculinity, like femininity, is natural, good, and nothing to minimize or malign.”
  
• “Second, the over-correcting wing of the #MeToo movement has painted targets on the backs of boys and men, from the campus to the boardroom. Moms across the country should become their sons’ human shields.”
  
• “If my son wants to honor his mother on Mother’s Day, he can do so by honoring himself and how he was created. There is nothing inherently wrong being male. I like my boy and all his maddening testosterone-fueled folly, his awkward interactions with girls, his inability to wait his turn, his clueless teenage-boy ways. My job as his mother is to teach him to channel his energy, good and bad, and send him out into the world to make his contribution. It is also my job to protect him from a culture that threatens his self-esteem and assails his identity.”