What it means to be a Mother

Or rather, what it doesn't mean to be a Mother, and being unable to control my children effectively in a supermarket is not going to give me sleepless nights. My apparant lack of discipline came up completely out of the blue over the weekend, much to my dismay and after initially feeling absolutely livid, I started to question my parenting ability and felt terrible - there's no escaping the fact that the boys are a nightmare when let loose in shops.

Then I started to think about what my role in their lives actually is, and does it really matter? There are no manuals to help you with being a parent and I don't have any one to go to for advice. When they think about me later in life, are they going to care that I made sure they were obedient at all times? Of course not, memories are made of much more than that and so are Mothers.

My role (as I see it) is to give them stability, confidence, happiness, security, support, comfort and adventures. The things that Eddie and I will ultimately give to our children are memories, and I want William and James to have the most magical, wonderful memories of their life with us as I can.

No mean feat, but then again, it may actually be marginally less difficult than trying to keep them under control in Waitrose.

Comments

sonya said…
Oh, to be a mother! Come to that, a parent of any kind. There are days when you have to question 'why' but then there are those moments when you know 'why' and wouldn't have it any other way. None of it is easy, no rights or wrongs, just try and set them along the right path. They may misbehave at home and for you but provided they behave well elsewhere, you have won.
29 November 2010 at 21:33
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