So now you've decided to seize and redefine the word "mother" too? And you've decided to redefine it in a way meant to sever the connection to being biologically female like you've done with the word "woman"? And you've decided to redefine "mother" so it has nothing to do with human reproduction, the way on another thread you've argued that women's breasts play no part in procreation? Sheesh, talk about arrogance, grabbiness and appropriation - and male entitlement.

Adoptive mothers enter into a formal, legal arrangement to be responsible for raising, caring for and seeing to all the needs of a minor growing up. Adoptive mothers are not in the same category as the other people you list, and throwing them in with all those other people belittles adoptive mothers.

someone who takes a kid in for years but doesn’t adopt them, a close older friend who cares for someone for a while, the nice lady down the block who makes sure no one on the street goes hungry and has a ride to the doctor? All these people may consider themself a mother as part of their identity

I know many foster parents who call themselves foster parents, foster moms and foster dads. Some go by uncle and aunt, or just their names. But none of them call themselves just plain mothers and fathers - the foster is key to their role. No foster agency would work with people who don't make the distinction between foster parenting and being a blood parent or adoptive parent. Boundaries and clear definitions are very important in fostering - it's damaging to kids in foster care to ignore the boundaries and blur the definitions. Also, no man I know or have ever heard of who has taken in kids has used the word "mother" for himself.

I have never heard anyone of either sex "who cares for someone for a while" saying that makes them a mother. A nurse, a helper, a carer, a companion, a sister of mercy, a Florence Nightingale - yes. A mother, no. Persons who do care for other people's children typically call themselves nannies, baby sitters, child minders - not mothers.

The nice lady down the block who looks out for the people on her street might say she is a good neighbor, a humanitarian, someone who is "people oriented," a concerned, caring citizen. She might even call herself a saint. But unless she's the head of a religious order with the title "mother superior," I highly doubt any "nice lady" would see fit to call herself a mother of anyone she has not given birth to, adopted or had a hand in raising from childhood on as in the case of stepmothers.