you’re a great mum

Last week of school holidays … but who’s counting?!

I don’t know about you but this school holidays has seemed long. There have been some sweet moments, some fun moments, and a lot of hard moments of parenting. And, yes, I am counting down the days.

In my most trying weeks, I gathered my tribe around me to pray, because quite frankly I was out of ideas, so that seemed the best and only thing to do. And I received a very precious text from a friend. “You’re a great mum”.

Oh, I so needed to hear those words.

In the midst of thinking that I’d failed, that my daughter’s behaviour was somehow caused by me; in the midst of trying to find solutions or pinpoint just where I went wrong; in the midst of trying to understand the 6-year-old female mind and beating myself up because everything wasn’t apparently clear. Those words were a sweet balm for a hurting soul.

We all need to hear those words, and I’m not sure I tell my mum friends enough, because we are all in the trenches together, but we forget to look up and encourage the warrior who is alongside us.

So here goes:

To the mum who is counting down the school holidays in anticipation of a sweet moment of blessed silence and solitude when school goes back, you’re a great mum.

To the mum whose child is about to commence the school journey, and you are a bundle of nervousness and fear, you’re a great mum.

To the mum whose husband is FIFO and you are the one and the only parent for weeks at a time, you’re a great mum.

To the mum who is struggling with navigating the scary world of social media one step ahead of her daughter, you’re a great mum.

To the mum labelling school pencils, shirts and shoes all day today, you’re a great mum.

To the mum who is asleep right now, baby and you having cried yourself out in tiredness and frustration, you’re a great mum.

To the mum whose child has just got their licence, and you release them even more into the world, you’re a great mum.

We need to tell each other this, we need to encourage each other.

Because being a mum is about the worry and the fear, and the constant thinking of the next step for our child.  And then we try desperately to get better, we fill ourselves up with advice of how to be a more crafty mum, or more playful mum, or more organic mum. We enhance the worry and repeat the lie.

Yes there is always something to work on, that’s life. But how about if just for a moment we stopped focusing on where we are failing and looked at what we have achieved?

What if we sent text messages, and encouraged each other? What if we said to each other. “Yes, I know this is hard, but you know what … you’re a great mum”?

What if we believed that we are the right mum for the children we have been given?

What if we believed that we are great mums?

How about we try it?

And if you can’t believe it for yourself, reach out and encourage someone else, because I bet she says the same back to you.

Join me for the journey,

Jodie