Reflections on my first Mother's Day
- Amy Leonard
- Mar 28, 2017
- 2 min read
Mother's Day in my house growing up was always a bit of a much of a muchness - its always been just me and my mum, and she's never liked Mother's Day; seeing it as an excuse for shops to hike up the prices of sad bunches of flowers, so we've never been a family that turns this particular Sunday into a 'holiday,' or one where there is a family outing or a special meal. I've always got my mum at least a card I might add, to which she always protests! (She did like this year's hyacinth in a teacup too!)
This year though, felt very different. Now I am a mum. Does this mean that i want to cash in on the goodies on offer and take advantage of the opportunity to get a free gift and a card gushing about how wonderful I am? No, of course not! But it's given me a whole new perspective on what the day is really about. Its given me much more of an appreciation of my own mum, and mum's all around the world, these strong women who carried us for months, who from the moment they learnt of our conception, changed their life and remodelled it around us - stopped drinking and partying of a friday night, stopped smoking, gave up favourite foods - all to keep us safe. Who spent hours in the worst kind of physical pain, pushing their bodies to the limit. And then theres the other mums; the dads being 'mum' too, the adoptive mums, the foster mums, the women who choose to raise a child that isn't biologically there's, and yet they love unconditionally.
Not forgetting too, the women who long to be a mum, for whom Mother's Day must feel like a cruel reminder, this day is for you too, because you are just as much a mum at heart as anyone else is.
To us all, whoever you are, Happy Mother's Day.
