Personal Space... remember a time when you had plenty of it? You could stretch out in your bed, you could bas close to or as far away from your husband in bed as you wanted!
You could spend as long as you like on the toilet and have the whole little room to yourself!
You had a great sleep every night and if you didn't it was quite possibly entirely your fault, no one else's!
You had quite lie ins on Sunday morning and then had leisurely coffee and perhaps some afternoon delight!
Now...
You are crammed into one corner of the bed, making sure your babe (who never seems to sleep in their cot) is well on the bed and as comfortable as they can be.
Toilet privacy? Whats that? You cannot remember the last time you were able to read a magazine while you went about your business. Now you try and get in and out as fast as you can between crying a little person on the floor tugging at your pants!
You can remember the last time you had a good sleep... about 9 months before your little cherub came into the world. You used to feel hungover due to one too many champagnes and now it's a constant way of life due to lack of sleep and being a 24/7 snack monster for a tiny human... you used to be cool.
Pfft! What is a Sunday lie in? 5am is the new 10am Y'all! It's a milk party up in here! Coffee... there is nothing leisurely about it any more, coffee is life and without you might actually wither up and cease to exist!
All these changes we go through as mamas- we completely lose ourselves. We give ourselves 110% to these beautiful little miracles that we bear with our own bodies. We sacrifice our bodies, we bear stretch marks, we have painful breasts, we squeeze watermelons out of places that it is beyond painful to. There is a reason why there is a saying 'nothing like a mother's love'. We quite literally sacrifice ourselves for our children. And you know what? It is all worth it. We would not change it for the world.
One smile from our babes melts our hearts. Just when you are at breaking point, it can be the saving grace. When we are feeling like it is all getting a bit too much, they reach out to us, they let us know that they know we are their mothers and we have something that no one else in the world can give them. It is so precious, to have a child. The childhood years are so fleeting. Soon enough they will be tweens, and then teens and then adults themselves. While yes, they will always be our children no matter what, we as mothers will shift. Our role will turn into more of a supportive, back seat role. We are there, that constant in their life, there to pick them up when they need it, give a mum hug when they want it. They will find wives and husbands, they will create their own little families and have their own children.
So yes, while they are children it can seem so overwhelming, such a huge load to raise a little human- cherish it. We will look back on their childhood years and relish in the memories, remember fleetingly that baby fresh smell. So be selfish, hold your babes longer, forget about the washing for a day. Don't feel the need to pass your babe around for everyone to hold- cherish in their youth and soak it up for all it is.
You'll get back your personal space but you won't get back your babes youth so love it. Love every single second of it.
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