What a lovely prompt this week. Tara has directed us to show a photo which to us epitomises motherhood. Here is mine:
Disclaimer: Now before you call Childline I was right there taking the photo one handed while my other hand is just below the pillow under JJ's head. I also just want to add that I do not mean motherhood is being on the PC and leaving the kids to sort themselves!
This is JJ when he is just a few weeks old (why he has a pink dummy I have no idea, bad Mummy!) and on the computer screen is Babycentre, this was my lifeline when JJ was small. I met so many fab women on there, many of whom I am still in contact with 7 years later and some I still see.
You know when you are a first time Mum and you have no idea about the constant dribbling, the crying that won't spot, the spit up that ruins your clothes, the lack of sleep at night, the rash that appears from no where etc etc - you get my drift. Babycentre was were I went to get the answers and reassurance that I needed. I did not really have any real life friends with small babes at first so I turned to this fab group of women and then later met friends with babes. Nowadays you can start a blog but when JJ was born in 2003 I did not even know what a blog was! lol
So that was the start of motherhood, learning to share every little part of my life with other women to learn from them and draw strength from them and then as I learnt, offering that back to others and helping them to feel confidence and enjoyment in their parenting. So today as well as motherhood I am part of a special gang: the Sisterhood, all us Mummies have to stick together despite our differences because we are on this long difficult but joyful journey together!