EVERY year some bright spark – probably a bloke – calculates the ‘value’ of a mum.

This year it’s reckoned that over 12 months, mums do an average of housework worth £32,032.

But only if they are of the stay-at-home variety. If you have part-time or full-time work you’ll still be doing £30 grand’s worth of chores on top.

The monetary value of a mum is apparently made up of the work we put in as counsellors, sports coaches, story-tellers, stylists, laundresses, chauffeurs and cooks. What they can’t calculate, of course, is the love. How can anyone?

What value can you put on the hours of care lavished on Britain’s most injured soldier, Ben Parkinson, by his mum, Diane?

Love is what gave Jade Goody the strength to carry on for her children, even though she was dying of cancer.

It’s what drives Rose Gentle to hound Tony Blair over the army failings that led to the death of her soldier son, Gordon, in 2004.

It’s what was in the minds and the hearts of those Japanese women who thrust their infants to safety before the tsunami swept them away.

And it’s in the faces of the desperate, starving women of Ethiopia who walk for miles every day to get clean water and food for their youngsters.

Almost every week we hear horrendous stories of mothers who have abandoned, beaten or abused their children. Scum like Tracey Connelly, mother of Baby Peter, who slavered over porn while her child was abused to death.

We hear about mums who lock the kids in the house for a week so they can go clubbing in Ibiza with their latest tattooed boyfriend.

And we hear about mums who say they love their kids but actually, love taking drugs more.

But they aren’t the norm and that’s why they make it into the papers.

Most mums do everything they possibly can to make their children safer, happier and richer than they are themselves.

That’s why we spend our waking hours – and many of the ones we’re supposed to be asleep – hovering like Chinooks over their lives, worrying they won’t do well at school, worrying if they’ve had a falling out with their mates, worrying that they’re ill, worrying they won’t be happy.

So Happy Mother’s Day to all the loving mums everywhere.

And especially mine.

Want to show your mum how much you care with a homemade treat? Visit our recipes section - see the link below.