Let’s face it, a lot of mother love is cupboard love. During infancy, our primal needs are food, drink and comfort. All things going well, they will match the same driving imperatives in whoever is doing the mothering. Sometimes the desire to make sure children are nourished can be overwhelming. It’s true that in the wild some animals are known to commit infanticide if their young refuse to eat. I once had a friend who rode a bicycle around the outside of their house to spoon-feed his child through the open kitchen window. But the supreme act of coddling was never more lovingly illustrated than when food writer Lois Daish wrote about her mother:
On many mornings when I was a little girl I woke to the smell of scrambled eggs and wholemeal toast. The aroma didn’t come from the kitchen down the passage. It was much closer than that – it was in bed with me, on the triangle of mattress between my pillow and the corner of the bed. While my mother wanted me to sleep as long as possible, she
