Last week I wrote a long overdue letter to my friends without children; I figured it was only fair to spread the love to my mum friends too.
To my Mum Friends
The majority of you have been around from the very beginning; three and a half years ago when we were all merely a few weeks pregnant. Our friendships started online through the Baby Centre forums and progressed over to Facebook. Who knew what they would have evolved to?
I was a first time mum, the first of my friends to be pregnant, and with a partner who worked overseas for eight weeks at a time. There were probably times when my questions resulted in an eye roll from you, but you never belittled me and always did your best to answer them.
A few days before my due date you were the ones who urged me to go the hospital as all of my symptoms indicated that I was in labour; you were right. You all knew that my daughter had entered the world before most of my family and friends did.
You helped me in the early days of newborn struggles and you are still helping me now during the terrible twos and soon to be three-nager stage.
The first people to know of Florrie's pregnancy were you; again you were the first to know that she had been born. For the most part you kept me distracted during her very speedy labour and made me laugh when, realistically, I should have been crying in pain.
When we all first met I was nervous; what would you think of me? Would we all be the same people in "real life"? I definitely didn't need to worry - even after a night of mixing my drinks which resulted in a very unfortunate situation which involved a lot of vomit, you still stuck around.
So, there's a few things that I want to say to you. Firstly, please stop being so hard on yourselves; you are all fantastic mums, wives and friends. You don't see yourselves the way that everyone else sees you - you may have your days where you feel like crap and think that you are this or that. Do you want to know what I and the rest of the world sees? A strong, powerful woman who is raising the most amazing family tribe.
You need to start making more time for yourselves; you do so much day in, day out for everyone else but you neglect the most important person - you. Take time out for a bath, a face mask, maybe read a book in bed or walk around the block alone.
I always wish that we weren't scattered around the country, although despite that I probably hear more from you than I do from my friends around the corner. But I guess that is what children do; they create new friendship bonds that result in being some of the strongest you will ever have.
And the best part about you all? You love my children as much as your own as I do for yours. I can honestly say that I feel as though I am a mother to almost twenty kids as my heart loves them just as much as it loves my girls.
To my local mum friends; all of the above applies to you too. But also, thank you for the soft play dates and the cups of tea (which I never thought that I would start drinking). We may not have known each other for long but I know that you will all be life long friends.
So to all of my mum friends - I salute you and I love you. Thank you for keeping me sane and for never judging me or my parenting skills. Thank you for helping me up when I have fallen and for giving me the push to just keep going. You are all amazing.
Thank you.
You helped me in the early days of newborn struggles and you are still helping me now during the terrible twos and soon to be three-nager stage.
The first people to know of Florrie's pregnancy were you; again you were the first to know that she had been born. For the most part you kept me distracted during her very speedy labour and made me laugh when, realistically, I should have been crying in pain.
When we all first met I was nervous; what would you think of me? Would we all be the same people in "real life"? I definitely didn't need to worry - even after a night of mixing my drinks which resulted in a very unfortunate situation which involved a lot of vomit, you still stuck around.
So, there's a few things that I want to say to you. Firstly, please stop being so hard on yourselves; you are all fantastic mums, wives and friends. You don't see yourselves the way that everyone else sees you - you may have your days where you feel like crap and think that you are this or that. Do you want to know what I and the rest of the world sees? A strong, powerful woman who is raising the most amazing family tribe.
You need to start making more time for yourselves; you do so much day in, day out for everyone else but you neglect the most important person - you. Take time out for a bath, a face mask, maybe read a book in bed or walk around the block alone.
I always wish that we weren't scattered around the country, although despite that I probably hear more from you than I do from my friends around the corner. But I guess that is what children do; they create new friendship bonds that result in being some of the strongest you will ever have.
And the best part about you all? You love my children as much as your own as I do for yours. I can honestly say that I feel as though I am a mother to almost twenty kids as my heart loves them just as much as it loves my girls.
To my local mum friends; all of the above applies to you too. But also, thank you for the soft play dates and the cups of tea (which I never thought that I would start drinking). We may not have known each other for long but I know that you will all be life long friends.
So to all of my mum friends - I salute you and I love you. Thank you for keeping me sane and for never judging me or my parenting skills. Thank you for helping me up when I have fallen and for giving me the push to just keep going. You are all amazing.
Thank you.
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