Aim. The article presents the educational role of a mother as viewed by women reaching adulthood. It is a specific stage of life as at this time people most often reflect upon starting their own family, taking on a parental role, offspring, and their upbringing. Considering the fact that the parental roles comprise a fundamental dimension of an adult’s functioning, the main aim of the study was to describe the basic attributes of the educational role of a mother as perceived and imagined by young women. The study was also aimed at determining the way women interpret upbringing and maternal upbringing, as well as the factors which, according to the female respondents, either facilitate or impede fulfilling the educational role of a mother. Methods. The method applied in the research procedure involved the qualitative analysis of broader utterances of women reaching adulthood related to understanding the fundamental attributes of the role of a mother in the upbringing of their children. These issues emerged from previous explorations which also had a character of qualitative studies and were carried out by means of individual and group interviews with young women. The presented study covered 109 women aged 19-25 residing the Subcarpathian Voivodeship. Results. To summarise the most significant results of the study and formulate the final conclusions, it should be stated that for young women the process of upbringing primarily means preparing a child for living in a society, transmitting values and social standards, while one of its fundamental aims is instilling ethical values. Upbringing by a mother should be based on profound love towards a child, showing them respect and satisfying their needs. The basic categories of an educational role of a mother are, in turn, love, care, specific personality and characterological features of a mother, and a personal relationship between a mother and a child. Fulfilling this role is easier for a mother when she is in a happy, satisfying marriage and she is happy and fulfilled as a woman