Maternal Instinct?

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   gmwilliamsposted 4 years ago

   
   Is maternal instinct natural or merely just societal indoctrination?

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      Kathryn L Hillposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      I felt huge maternal instinct, especially with my first baby boy. My own mother felt less maternal instinct than I did. But, I received better mothering than my three younger brothers. I know women who really had no idea how to truly love their children. They couldn't nurse them or hug them with true feelings of affection. But boy, could they yell at them, fund fault with them and tyrannize over them, demanding this, that and everything from them.
      
      I believe maternal instinct is natural and built in, but I suspect it is affected by many factors, including the environment and inner emotions / reactions to things going on in one's life. For instance, I had a hard time with my second child because I was angry and (literally) unsettled. (I had been moving from place to place for about four years.) With my first, I was in heaven as soon as I knew I was pregnant and we bonded perfectly. I felt more distant from the second child from the time she was in the womb.
      (To this day, she is nothing like me, in character or interests. But, I did my best as she grew and she has become a very talented and loving person.)

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      1. 84

         gmwilliamsposted 4 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you for your eloquent response.

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      The0NatureBoyposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      Since I don't, as yet, have the ability change from a boy to a girl and perform accordingly I must answer "Is maternal instinct natural or merely just societal indoctrination" from my observation of all animated beings only.
      
      As a country raised child during my first eight years I often climbed trees. I believe I was about five when I climbed to close to a Marking-bird's nest in early spring and was almost made to fall because of the parents, plural, began to swoop pass me with angry cries that almost made me fall. Since then I've observed all birds do that.
      
      As I got older I became a solo woods hiker and often got close to the home of ground animals only to have them come in a rage that caused me to vier off in another direction. And later watching wildlife documentaries it became obvious that maternal and parental in some animals, are instinctive.
      
      Civilized human are no longer bothered by non-human predators so our maternal instincts are geared toward child safety from human's creations. If we were living environmentally girls would instinctively have them but they would become less as the child aged until weaned, age 12, since man children nurse until their milk teeth are replaced and is when they become adolescents to live independent of other man.

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