Wednesday 20 March 2013

Made to be a Mum

I watched the show ’16 Kids and Counting’ last night with great interest last night. Personally I think to have kids into double figures either means you hate contraception or really love kids.

What struck me about the women involved is their utter devotion to their children. They’ll be out until all hours of the night picking them up from nights out, they’ll never sit down in the evenings because they are busy getting snacks, doing ironing, putting kids to bed. One even said that she doesn’t like her kids to watch TV – she has 12 children and doesn’t use CBeebies as a babysitter!
It struck me that this programme really demonstrated that some people are just made to be mothers. For me, I have always thought that I am not a natural mother. Yes, I wanted my son very much and fought hard to get him but I don’t find motherhood easy and I definitely don’t want to devote my every waking hour to Monkey. Although sometimes the work life balance is hard I enjoy being able to get away and to be someone apart from Mum. I enjoy my evenings when he has gone to bed and I can have a glass bottle of wine.
For some women though it just comes easy – they don’t flap over missed naps, long bedtime routines and arduous days of no telly. They enjoy their children 24/7 despite bad tempers and tantrums.
I’m happy to admit that I don’t find being a Mum easy at times but I know I work hard at it and that as far as my son is concerned I’m doing a great job!  Needless to say the idea of 11 more is not for me!

4 comments:

  1. What a lovely, honest post. I have 3 kids that I love with all my heart but I still sometimes resent devoting 24/7 to them and still want time to myself. Good for you for admitting it, you might not be a 'natural mother' but you certainly sound like a mum I'd like and be friends with :)

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    1. Thanks for commenting! There is plenty more of this 'I hate motherhood sometimes' posts to come so stay tuned! Vicky x

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  2. I'm not a mum (yet!) - give it a week or so and I will be! And I worry that it won't come naturally to me - I've had a career which I would like to continue on a freelance basis and although I love kids, am creative and will be doing all the baking and crafting etc with my little girl, I still wonder whether I'll actually enjoy motherhood 24/7! I'm sure I'll strike a balance but thanks for being honest enough to say that it's not all about the child! lol.

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    1. Thanks for commenting and massive good luck for the next week or so! For me maternity leave was great because at that time I was happy to devote myself fully to motherhood and then after about 9 months or so the career began calling again and I felt I needed to have another dimension to me. Now I am just trying to get the balance right! x

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