Motherhood

Last night I went to the premier of Bad Moms.   Written by the guys who wrote hangover, it’s a send up with the message ‘we are all bad moms – so don’t judge.’ We all try hard to make it look as though we have out shit together, but really under it all we are like ducks – floating above the pond but paddling like crazy underneath to keep afloat.…

Mama, I accept that you are tired – I know how it feels to be delirious with exhaustion but still having to put one foot in front of the other because there is a little person who needs you. I accept that you feel all touched out - I know that feeling of being groped and climbed on by little ones all day and night, that has you flinching as…

Are you still rocking a little post baby bump after the birth of your child or children? A post baby bump is perfectly normal and evidence of one of the amazing ways our body transforms to make a precious human. During pregnancy we put on weight so that we have extra fat stores for our baby to draw on when they start breastfeeding. Often the…

I was going to bring my son into the world without the typical large volume of waste that accompanies babies. We were going to be ecoceptional! And we were. Until baby number two came along.

There is a lot to be said for the ‘village’ when you are a mother. Mothering is so much richer when experiences can be shared, when we can support each other through the tough times (‘it does get easier’), celebrate the wins, however small (my baby slept 5 hours straight!), and laugh together at the absurdities (wondering, ‘where the hell did I get…

Dear New Mother, It takes your breath away, doesn’t it? You knew it would. You knew it would change, well, everything, but you didn’t know it would rock you to your very core quite as shockingly as it has, did you? I didn’t either. None of us did. We read every baby book we could lay our hands on and listened to all the advice being thrown at…

I remember sitting with my eight-week-old baby in my rocking chair, rocking back and forth, wishing, hoping and praying he would just go to sleep. I was exhausted beyond anything I could ever have imagined. I was most definitely not joyful, well groomed, poised or smiling. I was sad, scared, exhausted, wearing tracksuit pants and crying. He was my…

This surrender is not weak or submissive. It is not ‘giving in’. Surrender, in this context, is really about acceptance of where our child is at right now, as well as where we are as parents, and about ‘letting go’. Surrender means living in the present, not missing precious moments through resentment or blame – especially blaming ourselves – for…

Presents to buy, parties to plan (and attend), decorations and food to organise, standing in queues with excited children who want to meet the big man in the red suit (then shriek with fear when they get up close) and, if you are expecting holiday visitors, you will also have to clean and cook and prepare the spare room. It is all too easy to…

Sometimes we get into such a routine of saying ‘no’ to our children,  not out of being a bad parent but just because we condition ourselves into having this response. D1: “Can I tip this tub of trains out Mummy?”
Me: “No, it’s too messy, you don’t need to!” I say no because it’s convenient for me. Surely he can play without tipping them all…