Like most women/mums, I work hard. I work long hours, in fact, like most mums I never stop working, even throughout the night! I often think that if I was ever held captive somewhere and tortured with lack of sleep I’d be fine, no issue for me if you let me dose then wake me every 30min… just another day in the office!
Juggling my day to day life, I rarely have time to sit and reflect, I certainly don’t have any of that stuff they call “me time”. I’m one of those mothers that are lucky to get their hair done or put makeup on, let alone have pedicures or massages. In fact, I was given a massage voucher for my birthday in May and have I used it? You guessed it, “no”, do I want to use it? “Hell yeah!” Do I feel I have time to use it? You guessed it – “no”. Now I’m definitely not saying that is the right or wrong way to be but it is just the way I am. So, having time to sit down and reflect is difficult for me, taking time out, giving myself permission to have “me time” is really not in my make up. Sound familiar?
Why am I telling you this you might ask?
Well, I recently decided to add blogging to my never ending list of duties… for a number of reasons but ultimately, I just thought I should. I talk a lot at the best of times; I always have something to say so a blog was just another means for me to communicate to the world. I work from home everyday so do not get a lot of time to ‘chat’.
Mulling over an ocean of topics, I saw this as a great opportunity to ‘profile’ some Mums I knew, Mums that I thought had something unique, represented a certain ‘type’ of Mother so I set off creating questions for each Mum I had in mind. Of course I couldn’t just use a standard set of questions because that was just so impersonal, generic questions just wouldn’t do these Mothers justice! One by one I created questions and emailed them to our unsuspecting Mums. I never expected to receive such insightful, honest responses. Nor did I expect to be taken on my own journey of self realisation and acceptance…
As each response was emailed back I set aside some time to actually “read” their responses. My eyes welled up more than once, goose bumps rippled over my body and my heart was warmed. Reading about the lives of these women, being given the opportunity to share in just a small part of their world has been an amazing journey, for me as a mother and a person in my own right.
I feel honoured to have been given this opportunity. These women have opened their hearts, and shared their inner most feelings. The honesty in which they responded has meant so much to me without restraint, without facades just their lives as they are. Reading each word of each line of each paragraph I felt for that small moment, a part of their lives, and a part of something else. And after reading about each woman, I found myself in awe, nothing short of admiration for them as individuals, as women, mothers, wives and professionals. Like all of us they are juggling day to day, finding some balance.
Though the lives of each of these women are so different what unites them is their desire to do the very best they can, to be the very best they can. Their undeniable love for their children and their partners is uncompromising. Sure, in an ideal world we would expect this right? Yes we would but what really struck me is the diversity of their lives, the way they approach motherhood and different cards each of them have been dealt. Yet, they are each empowering and inspiring in their own way.
What this process has taught me is that no matter what path we take, who we become and what we achieve it doesn’t matter, there is no right way or wrong way, as mothers we strive to do the best we can for our children, for our families, we strive to make the world a better place and that is what matters!
So, I may not manage to use that massage voucher until May next year (hopefully), I may not give myself “me time” but I’m okay with that. I know I’m the very best person I can be, I know I’m the very best mother I can be and I know that what I do each and every day makes some sort of positive difference to the world my daughter lives in and the world I will leave behind.
That’s what really matters isn’t it?
Very inspirational Marnie. It seems to me that your “you” time is building a brand for your daughter to be proud of and your mother as well and that’s how you reward yourself!
Thank you Hayley, your kind words are appreciated. And yes, my reward is my daughter and creating a future for her. x