Hi all,

 

I was watching a TV series yesterday when I listened to a new word for me, "mother-hen". By the context I understood it was a mum who is always attentive to her children, always looking after them and spending quality time with them. The point is that I couldn �t look it up in my print dictionary and on wordreference I was given "indulgent mother" when I typed the equivalent Spanish term for that definition. Is "mother hen" more colloquial than "indulgent mother"? Which term would you use to describe a father instead of a woman? "Father hen"- I guess not because I �ve already googled it and got no answers? Thanks for your time and have a nice Sunday!!  

A mother hen isn �t usually a term to be applied to a mother looking after her kids. It refers to a lady who fusses over those around her - friends and workmates. It �s not always complimentary: it can denote a bit of a fusspot who should mind her own business.  

A positive example: a head of department was really caring about her team of teachers. We used to say, �Oh Pauline is a proper mother hen, with her chicks gathered round her.� 

 

 

 

I agree with Lynne, that the term is usually applied to a woman, or sometimes even a man, who is constantly "taking care of" others, whether they need and want it or not.

 

Bruce 

Some people use "mother hen" in a positive, loving, nurturing, protective sense.

 

"I. God�s love is like a mother hen: who gathers and protects us. �Have you ever seen a chicken hawk go after its prey? The old mother hen is often aware of the presence of the hawk in time to gather her chicks under her wing. With a furious fuss she squawks till her brood is safe by her side. She fluffs out her wings and protects them with her own body. The chicken hawk dives and the old hen turns her body toward him and cocks a wary eye without moving from her children. The predator comes in again for the kill and the mother 2 spreads her wings even wider. A third time he dives only to be thwarted by the determined selfsacrifice of the mother hen. She is too big to be a target and the chicks are too safe to be seized so he flies away.� (Brett Blair). "

 

http://billlinda.org/EngSermons/2016-0221_PastorSharon_sermon.pdf 

This site http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/stw/2016/02/01/loving-like-a-mother-hen-lent-2c-2016/ asks the rhetorical question in a sermon, "How often do we use the term �mother hen� when we refer to a person who is especially nurturing to and protective of those they love?"