5 Things I’ve Learnt So Far as a Mother, by Clare // Guest Post

(1) Only you will define what motherhood will change in your life – When I was pregnant with my first child I found there were a lot of statements thrown at me by other people about how my life would change “you’ll never do X again” or “you won’t have any time for that after the baby comes”. What I’ve learned is we all learn to prioritise what matters most to us. I know mother’s who do triathlons, ride a horse every day, bake artisan bread or commute daily to London. I also know mothers who “never have time to read a book” but probably spend hours finger painting with their children. You have less time as a mother, but you can still choose how to use the time you have.

(2) Ironing really doesn’t matter – Really it doesn’t. I don’t iron anything anymore and my husband only irons his uniform and my son’s school shirts. I do not ever spend hours in front of the TV slaving away pushing an iron backwards and forwards and I don’t think it’s made any difference to anything in our life.

(3) Babies are both hard and easy – A baby is hard work, but at some point when you have bickering, opinionated, messy primary age children you will look at a friend with a baby and think how easy life was then!

(4) You will learn to love the outdoors – It starts when you are pushing a pram round the block trying to get a child to sleep and it continues through toddlerhood when kicking the leaves and feeding the ducks becomes the simplest most affordable pastime to entertain your child. When they reach school age they’ll want to camp and cook over campfires and you’ll discover that despite the lure of theme parks and cinema trips, nothing beats the adventures you can have outdoors with a child.

(5) You can still be a mum and not know what to do around babies – Many years ago a friend told me how she went to a baby group whilst heavily pregnant and was offered someone’s baby to hold. The first thing out of her mouth was “err no thanks”. Everyone in the room looked slightly horrified! I am now that mother, I really don’t feel comfortable holding someone else’s newborn, but I have held (at length) two of my own! I just don’t like being responsible for a slightly fragile human being or something I didn’t produce that might vomit on me. And as it turns out, that’s ok.

Clare blogs over at maybushstudio.com, as well as her new website littlegreenexplorers.com, which brings together groups that organise outdoor learning or nature-themed events for children. She is mum to Theo and Alice.