Her mother sat her down and answered: "Well dear, God made Adam and Eve and they had children, and their children had children and that was how humanity began."

A couple of days later, the girl asked her father the same question.

Her father sat her down before answering: "Well dear, many years ago there were monkeys from which the human race evolved."

The confused girl returned to her mum and said, "Mummy, how is it that you told me we were created by God, and Daddy said we evolved from monkeys?"

Her mother answered, "Well dear, I told you about my side of the family and your father told you about his."

Earlier this week, family support and foster care organisation Barnardos Australia announced it will no longer be running its annual mother of the year award.

Why? Apparently to better reflect and support diverse families.

In a statement, the charity said: "Barnardos works with children who live with a variety of families - among the families we support are sole parents, same-sex couples, families with both a mother and a father figure, relatives caring for the children of family members, and children who are cared for by their grandparents."

This argument seems a total non sequitur to me. How do any of these daily realities null and void mothers from being recognised for the work they do?

Journalist and radio host Ben Fordham, who has hosted the Barnardos event for the past few years, said the end of the award was "a real shame". He reasoned: "It's also a shame because it sounds like political correctness has played a part here."

It is yet another moment in time to stop and muse: what does political correctness actually achieve? To not offend anyone ... or to offend, but offend a different class?

It reminds me of those children's races where, so that nobody is offended or feels left out, everybody is given a blue ribbon that says "first". Everybody knows it's not true and, in the end, the organisers achieve the very thing they sought to avoid - to offend. Who is offended? I would venture to say the person who came first, but also everybody who tried hard in that race.

Perhaps the most offended person is the one who tried the hardest.

I know that a mother of the year award being cancelled isn't going to destroy our entire cosmos.

However, it is a step closer to denying the already mostly unsung construction of so much love and peace in society.

Nobody is saying that we numerous others who will never be mothers do not make a contribution to society.

But surely those women who have carried us within their own bodies - and often with pain, brought us into the world - then nurtured us with indescribable love and devotion, deserve special recognition.

As you move up through the animal kingdom, you find that the more advanced creatures usually take longer to leave their parents. No animal comes close to we humans for being so helpless - and for such a long time - without our parents and the nest they created for us.

To reduce our recognition of human motherhood is not evolution - it is devolution.

We can claim to be as woke as we want, but even in 2021 the vast majority of unpaid housework is done by mothers.

In the current climate, a very good argument can be made that men should be doing far more housework than they do. We men have made a little progress, but the vast majority of unpaid housework in Australia is still being done by women and, in particular, mothers.

Nothing in this world seems to change a person more than motherhood.

And a very high percentage of women undertake this transformation with heroic love. Let us praise motherhood, not ignore it.

Twitter: @frbrendanelee