Mothers are important. This is reflected in the vast amount and diversity of research on the topic of maternal effects. In my talk, I will present an overview of the meta-analytic work we undertook to synthesise primary animal research related to the intergenerational maternal effects. The results include a few fresh insights on what to not to blame mothers for. In addition, I will outline the methodological work on research synthesis in ecology and evolution, but also bridging to other disciplines, expanding and improving the ways we make sense of the scientific information.