Although young couples often want an egalitarian division of paid and family work, this changes after starting a family. Beside economic reasons, cultural perceptions of a “good mother” can also contribute to this effect. This article investigates how mothers think about “intensive mothering” and live it. This is an ideal which defines the child (and its care) as a woman’s highest priority. A logistic regression analyses is carried out on the basis of the data from the survey about Familienleitbilder to find out who is in favor of “intensive mothering”. It becomes evident, that this is particularly true for West German or religious mothers. A structural equation model shows how this disposition influences the behavior. The belief that the mother is the best caregiver for the child has no direct influence on the actual care, but acts indirect over distrust against external child care. East German or highly educated mothers are less likely to look after their children themselves. This persistent difference between Eastern and Western Germany can be explained by historically grown and intergenerationally transmitted norms.