It seems all us Moms have a serious task of being one though many! To some it comes easily and naturally. Others get stressed. I think it’s easier to take it in our stride and not try to add any more roles than necessary. Being a mother brings its own quota naturally. So have a read of this Mummyology blog. Great.
So, as the saying goes, we women are great multi -taskers… we can manage many different things at the same time – you know how it goes, changing a baby while making a call, feeding your kids whilst making tonights dinner / sewing uniforms / finishing kids homework…. there are many of us who on a daily basis manage an awesome number of ‘tasks’ that come our way.
As I glanced at the newspaper headlines at the petrol station this afternoon, which here in the UK are filled with Kate Middleton looking amazing and proudly showing the public her little baby bump; I thought to myself that it isn’t just how many tasks we have to undertake each day any more; its how many personas we have to take on each day that piles on the pressure.
Take the gorgeous Kate… obviously, she has a very public persona which she shows us all with amazing glamour and grace. I assume she then (when she gets the chance) also has her ‘wife’ persona when she is finally away from prying eyes. Very soon, she will have to be a mum too as well as the little sister, daughter, charitable patron and friend that she has to be…I can’t begin to imagine what her daily life feels like.
Obviously, I don’t have the paparazzi chasing after me (thank god!) so I don’t have that pressure but sometimes I do feel like have to be too many different ‘people’ – there are too many women in me!
Lets count them up, today, of course most importantly, I have been a mum – once you get that job, you can never ever let it go! I have also been an Aunty, looking after a cousins little girl for the morning, I have been a friend, chatting to a friend in need on the phone. I have been a house owner – rapidly hiding my clean laundry when the agent made a last minute call to bring a buyer around. I have been a sister and a daughter sharing a coffee with family. I like many other mums also feel the need to put on a bit of a ‘game face’ at school pick up time as I mingle with the other mummies waiting to pick up their kids from school.
After school, I was a good goddaughter dragging the kids to see an aged aunty who is a delight and an inspiration. Oh and just now… right at the moment I walked down the stairs and turned on my lap top… I remembered to be number 9 – my latest persona of ‘blogger’ which is a funny part of me that some friends just don’t get (I don’t earn money from doing this and they can’t understand therefore why I would want to write. For me, especially as I am a stay at home mum, I find it a way to connect with the grown up world and to keep my brain entertained.
So, today I have already been 9 different versions of me, my husband isn’t home from work yet so I haven’t had to pull number 10 out of the bag yet but fingers crossed I will – if I am not asleep on the sofa by the time he gets in – ha!
Yes, I am all of the above and they are the women that make up the one real woman that is ME but I am so very rarely just ‘me’. As Freya gets older and more independent, I slowly find myself with a tiny bit more time and ability to think about the me that once existed before I had kids. How she looked, how fit she was, what she liked to do in her spare time (what was that?!) and all that good stuff.
How many women are you every day? If you tot them up, its quite amazing – I didn’t want to write this post for you to think I am moaning about my life, or for you to applaud me but simply for you to reflect on your own life and take a moment to think about who YOU really are… as mothers, we spend probably 99% of our time giving in some way to someone. If you find that 1% and give it to yourself, you might find you like it!