Mothers are Monumental

Hello Everybody! Last week I celebrated my 40-something birthday and I am not sure where in the world you are reading this from, but for me, today is Mother’s Day! Lucky for me, the sun is shining here, the kids are behaving, and all is good in my world 😊.

I know that Mother’s Day is not celebrated by every country on the same day. I know that my friends in England already had their Mother’s Day for the year. But plenty of other countries are celebrating today too. And making it completely convenient for expat me, is the fact that both Australia and Germany celebrate Mother’s Day today, the second Sunday in May. That means no mix-ups within our family and no excuses like “Ohhhh, I thought we were celebrating on the German Mother’s Day not the Australian one…” 😉.

Not only have my 3 beautiful, energetic and sweet children been extra lovely today and made it a special day. My dear Hubby too, of course (thank you very much for that massage gift voucher. I’ll happily take care of that!!). I also have another reason to smile today. I have some new babies in my life…

Baby birds!!! Just when you thought you had seen everything, about 3 weeks back we found a bird’s nest. In our shed. In Hubby’s bike helmet. Yes, you read that right, a nest in a bike helmet. Because, er, where else?!? 😉

After several days, 5 fragile little speckled, greenish eggs were nestled in there too and then after a couple of weeks of the mama bird brooding, one after the other those 5 little pink chicks hatched.

I have become completely obsessed by them. Multiple times each day I go out to the shed, check whether Mama or Papa bird are there, and if not, are the babies still in the nest… how do they look today… how loud are they today…  I have become quite the protective little-birdie-foster-mother/ornithologist, LOL.

Now that they have grown bigger and finally have a pretty good feathery coating they are getting louder and more demanding. I see how hard the parents work all day long, flying about, finding worms in our garden and then delivering them to a chaotic nest of beaks, flailing wings and ever-louder chirping and peeping. All. Day.

On Motherhood

And of course it reminds me of being a mother to my human babies. I can still remember how I felt during my pregnancies with each other them. How I felt on the day of their births. How I loved them before they were even born but even more the moment I first laid my eyes on them. I would protect them with my life.

I work so hard for my kids each and every day. I try to encourage, educate, heal, comfort, console, entertain, discipline, nourish, empathise, challenge, embolden, support and above all, love them as best I can.

Sometimes I want to high-five myself for a great day. Sometimes I suck at it. Big time. Maybe they notice those times or maybe they don’t. And just at those times when I start thinking that perhaps nothing I do makes a difference the universe sends me a reassuring message.

My kids come and give me their brightest smiles and big squeezy, squashy hugs and thoughtful handmade Mother’s Day gifts and recite loving rhymes along the lines of “you are the best Mama” and “my heart is yours” and big fat tears well up in the corners of my eyes. And I know that I am loved 😊.

Does any of this ring true for you too, as a parent? Do you try and try and try some more and wonder whether any of it was worth it? (P.S. The answer is a resounding YES! You and your children are amazing!)

Then naturally I flash back to my own childhood and my own mother and recoil at how massively ungrateful I most likely was and how much thankless work she did for us kids. All day. Every day. Like almost all people, who tend to only appreciate things with maturity and hindsight, I am massively grateful for the love and unwavering support my mum (and dad too) gave (and still give) me, always.

And this receiving of handmade goodies from my own kids makes me also remember the good old Mother’s Day craft stall held every year at my primary school. Where, armed with $1 or so, we sweet, innocent school children proud with our *financial independence* thoughtfully strolled back and forth past the offerings of soapbars wrapped in lace handkerchiefs, crocheted tissue box covers and ribbon-bound candles, wanting so badly to choose just the right things for our mothers. (I mean, clearly, what mother hasn’t been pining for a bar of soap in a new handkerchief?!?)

I had recently been wondering whether such old-fashioned-sounding stalls still happened, when I discovered that yes indeed! Mother’s Day stalls are still a “thing” in Australian primary schools.

An old primary school friend of mine shared the wonderful story of sending her own daughter off to the stall at her school this week with $10 (Oh! For the good old days where $1 could buy you something!). Her daughter came home proud as punch, announcing: “Mum, count yourself lucky. I bought you two things and I only bought myself one. You see, I got a bargain, my thing was only $8 so I couldn’t resist.” My friend opens the gift bag from her dear daughter to discover a nail file and asks where the second thing was. “I bought you the bag Mum” was her reply. LOL. And now I’ll bet you’re dying to know what the daughter spent the $8 on. She scored herself a watch. I laughed SO HARD when I first heard this. Ah children, bless them all 😊.

On that happy note, I am going to take the opportunity to end this post for the week. For all the mothers, grandmothers, stepmothers, mothers-in-law, mothers-to-be and foster mothers out there, I wish you an extraordinary HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY. May you receive, and in turn, give, much love on this day and every day.

I would love to hear of any funny Mother’s Day stories of your own. Go ahead and share below!!