MAU info

1. What is Mothers Acting Up? Mothers Acting Up (MAU) is movement of mothers, publicly and passionately advocating for the world’s children.

2. How did MAU start? Mothers Acting Up was created by four friends who – while raising their children together – became increasingly disturbed by the choices their government was making, and how those choices were impacting the lives and future of every child on the planet.

They knew the grim statistics about children’s wellbeing around the world; it was clear that children needed many more voices speaking out on their behalf. They believed that mothers – the primary caretakers of children around the world – were potentially an incredibly powerful lobby for children, BUT often didn’t see themselves as political, or hadn’t yet seen it as their role, their job, their honor to speak out for children. Mothers Acting Up was created to invite mothers to stretch our traditional mother roles to include publicly and passionately advocating for the world’s children.

The first thing the founders did was write a vision statement: We realize that we live in a world that does not prioritize or protect our children's well-being and that this will not change without each of us finding the courage and commitment to speak out on their behalf. By mobilizing our gigantic political strength, we can ensure the health, education and safety of every child, not just a privileged few. Let us: whisper this to each other, sing it out in the streets, yell it from our rooftops, declare it in our houses of government: we will protect our children with our personal and political strength, wherever they live on earth!

The Mother’s Acting Up movement was officially launched on Mother's Day 2002, reclaiming it as the day Julia Ward Howe originally envisioned in 1870: a day set aside for mothers to unite for the wellbeing of our global family. After purchasing all the hot glue guns in town, the first Reclaiming Mother's Day parade was held with banners, flags and truly over-the-top hats & costumes. Over 100 people, some walking on stilts, celebrated mothers as a powerful political force to protect the rights and wellbeing of children all over the world.

Since 2002, MAU has developed 5 Principles and 4 programs all intended to inspire, educate and engage a growing movement of mothers (and others). MAU has active members in 49 states (North Dakota eludes) and 23 countrieswho have held 60+ Mother’s Day events across the country; taken monthly actions and annual collective actions; and advocated for the world’s children through personal choices, community forums and in the offices of decision makers. MAU intends to engage a million mothers in advocating for the world’s children, until our public & corporate policies are measured by how they impact children and our collective resources are redistributed to nurture and protect the world’s children.

And the rest is history...that you, that we, are making.

3. What’s all this about parades? Julia Ward Howe inspired The MAU Reclaiming Mother’s Day events with her Mother's Day Declaration, written in 1870. The events celebrate the vision that Julia spoke of 100 years ago: mothers everywhere rising up together around that which unites us rather than divides us — the lives of our children. The parades provide a forum for mothers* to express their personal commitment and invite their communities to join them in taking collective action. From there, the MAU Website offers monthly actions to unite individuals into a political force to be reckoned with.

4. What does Mothers Acting Up do? MAU inspires, educates and engages mothers — a gigantic force to be reckoned with— to prioritize children in our corporate and public policies. This mother-led, mother-fed movement offers programs including: Take Action: The Mother Agenda; the MAU Handbook: Inspiration & Tools for the Movement; Reclaiming Mother’s Day: Uniting for our Global Family; and MAU Live!: Rehearsing Activism. Initially a web-based movement, the heart of MAU is still the monthly actions offered from the MAU Web site.

5. What’s with the stilts? The logo for MAU is a mother on stilts, carrying children on her shoulders. Stilts are the perfect symbol for MAU because: #1. You’re never so visible as when you are on stilts — and advocating for children entails getting visible, and #2. You can’t stand still on stilts. Literally. And once you start acting on your beliefs, you can’t stop. Walking on stilts also creates a MEDIA EVENT out of a simple public action. It’s fun, transformative, and kids look at you with awe and, frankly, we can’t say enough good things about stilts.

6. The MAU Principles for effective advocacy

7. What are the goals of MAU? MAU intends to engage a million mothers (or as many as it takes) in publicly advocating for the world’s children. MAU believes that when enough mothers collectively flex our economic & political strength on behalf of children, corporate & public policies will be measured by how they impact children and resources will be redistributed to benefit children.

Around the world, mothers* are uniting into a gigantic, educated, noisy and powerful lobby to prioritize children's wellbeing in our federal policies & budgets. MAU invites you to be part of this exuberant revolution