Happy Mother's Day

This morning at 7.30am as I cleaned vomit from the bathroom floor, I thought to myself what an unexpected start to my Mother’s Day.

That’s the thing about being a Mum though; you can’t pick and choose when you’re on duty.  From their first breath, things in your life are never the same again.

Our baby cried all night, our eldest has a tummy bug and our middle child has headache inducing verbal diarrhoea.  He’s the entertainer in the family.

What made things a tad more difficult this morning was that my husband took me out to dinner last night, which was lovely.  We talked about grown up stuff and got to eat all our own food with little or no stains on our clothes.  We also had a couple of drinks and as all parents out there know, hangover + kids = hell on earth.

So my bleary eyed husband took the boys to his parents’ house, while I stayed home to nurse our daughter.

My little girl is so sick that she and I have spent most of the day on the couch together.  She wants me here, to rub her head and rest her feet on my lap.  I’ve been cuddling her, singing to her and just spending time with her which is already becoming a more and more precious thing for me.  As my cousin recently said to me, our job is to prepare them as best we can to leave us.

Being a mother is the toughest, most demanding and exhausting job I’ve ever had.  There are days when I can’t take another fight, deal with yet more mess, have everything I own destroyed or a hundred other problems.  I’ve cried my heart out for feeling like an utter failure and then I’ve cried even harder for feeling guilty about getting angry with my wonderful kids.  Every day means experiencing almost every human emotion at a hundred miles an hour but I wouldn’t change any of it for the world.

So today I want to salute mothers everywhere at every stage of the job. 

Whether you awoke to the smell of burning toast, homemade cards, school made presents, dirty faces and wide eyes or sophisticated presents, flowers, chocolates, perfume, spa days, fancy dinners, which I trust they do as they get older – remember, you are worth it. 

Have a wonderful Mother’s Day and keep smiling.