Dear Editor: Birth of a mentally retarded child in every family is considered as a challenging event. In a typical family the maximum pressure is on mother. According to statistics by Iran’s state welfare organization in 2006, there are about 2008000 disabled people in Iran, of whom 28795 have mental disabilities. However, the problems of families and mothers having children with mental retardation have been extensively neglected. No studies are available on the effect of children’s conditions on parents’ self-concept. Self-concept is defined as combination of perceptions and values that an individual believes to be true of their ownself.