Mums….Trying to Have a Moment to Themselves Since 3400 BCE!

A Love Letter to Motherhood - in celebration of Mothers Day this weekend

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As little girls, we all dream about the day our baby doll will eventually be real and will be our very own little bundle of joy that we can cuddle and feed and sing to.

It's an almost guaranteed part of growing up, and for most will become a reality as they get older. Unfortunately, what nobody tells you about during those perfect childhood years where your little plastic baby doesn’t cry or poop or throw milk up all over you, is that babies aren’t really like your favourite doll.

You can’t cut their hair or draw on their face or carry them around by one leg – who would have thought it!

You can’t throw them in the toy box when you’re done playing or leave them lying in a mud patch outside in the rain. They are loud and messy, and they really smell sometimes!

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When reality hits, it's like a thousand nuclear nappies have gone off and you ran out of baby wipes to clean up the mess.

Its war baby, and you have just been thrust into hand-to-hand combat with the mother of all ninjas and no idea how to fight them!

Poop, pee, vomit, tears, tantrums, night feeds, day feeds, cold food, cold coffee, toys everywhere, no sleep, the quickest showers in the entire history of the world EVER, your very own Houdini that can get into everything, random strangers thinking they can touch them in public.....the list goes on and on and on.

It's enough to turn a saint into a quivering wreck, but - and this is the important bit - what they also don’t tell you is just how incredible and lifechanging becoming a mother is.

I am lucky enough to have had the pleasure of being mum to two who are not so little now, but becoming a mum is without a doubt, the most amazing and worthwhile thing I have and will ever do.

What I have learnt about motherhood is that not only is it the hardest job in the world but it's also the most rewarding, however you do spend the rest of your life feeling guilty for every decision you make!

You question and second guess yourself every time you tell them off or alternately, let something slide. You feel awful because you didn’t make your Bolognese from scratch. You worry that you have given them too much fizzy pop or maybe, you are being too strict with it and my goodness – that is like a gateway drug to a sugar addiction and who knows where that could lead? By the time you’re done they are shooting up heroin in a ditch whilst glugging down a bottle of full fat, all the sugar in the world, Coca Cola!

You see how crazy us mothers become? We develop an innate ability to overthink everything and turn it into a disaster of epic proportions! (insert laughing face emoji!!)

I hear you asking, wasn’t this supposed to be a love letter to motherhood? It's coming, I promise.

You see, I also remember the first time I experienced what felt like a kaleidoscope of butterflies in my stomach at around 4 months pregnant. I remember how reality suddenly hit, and from that moment on, I began to develop a bond with this little, tiny human that was growing inside me. That was the moment I became a mum.

I remember both of their births - vividly! It was equal parts excruciating pain and exquisite wonder as I experienced bringing my babies into this world and held them in my arms for the first time, knowing instantly that I would never feel love like it for anything else in my entire life.

I remember the first time they smiled at me, their first words, the first time they crawled and walked and the first they told me they loved me. These were precious moments that will forever hold a place in my heart.

I wasn’t the best mum. Without a doubt I got it wrong and continue to do so.

One thing I do know is that my two, despite their craziness are without a doubt the best thing that has ever happened to me, so this is for all those mums out there who are just like me.

Listen up and listen good ladies...... You are enough.

So what if you don’t cook every meal from scratch and the Xbox or IPad occasionally babysits when you are trying to catch up on three days of washing.

So what if you haven’t had the chance to vacuum in the last couple of days or bleached the bathroom to within an inch of its life.

So what if your usual family time this week has been spent watching a movie because you are too tired from working and then coming home to ‘mum’ stuff.

So what??Your kids love you.

Read that again........YOUR KIDS LOVE YOU!

You are truly their world, and when they leave home, they won’t remember how many times a week you vacuumed, or what bleach you used to clean the house.

They will remember the ninja hugs and the sloppy kisses!

They will remember the movie nights and the days out splodging in muddy puddles.

They will remember the way you nursed them when they were sick.

They will remember building snowmen and crafting and collecting leaves in the Autumn.

They will remember the things that actually matter, and they will love you even more for every minute of it.

Don’t sweat the small stuff.

Your littles ones will grow up quickly, and all those special moments will be gone in a flash. Enjoy them while they are young and give yourself a pat on the back for being there and loving them the way they needed to be loved.

Happy Mother's Day to all you amazing ladies out there and remember....don’t be too hard on yourself.

You have never needed to be perfect. You just need to be mum.

Written by Rebecca Reece