Tuesday 27 September 2016

In which I became “Little G’s mum”

“What’s Izzy’s mum called again?” I whispered loudly to my friend, as Izzy’s mum exited after a changing mat chat on weaning several weeks into term two of baby swimming.  “Err… I’ve no idea” came the hesitant answer.  Long pauses, raised shoulders and blank, embarrassed faces provided no clues from others.  Nobody, it turned out, knew Izzy’s mum’s name. 

Why is it so much easier to remember the baby’s name than the mum’s, I pondered.  Because this is, without a doubt, the reality of attending baby groups.  It dawned on me in this moment that I had unwittingly morphed into simply being “little G’s mum”, an essential and inseparable appendage to the main show. 

Now the pre-mum me, the professional thirty-something with an adventurous streak that scoffed at maternal instinct, would have been truly horrified by this situation.  Maternity leave, I fondly imagined, offered the time away from work that would open my horizons to new learning and hobbies, and transform me into an all-knowing, multi-talented super-mum.  I would develop interests in areas I had never previously expressed any interest at all, for the sake of breeding a talented and worldly child.  My Personal Development Plan for the year thus had wide-ranging goals:  renovate my rusty A-level French, dig deep to find some earth mother and grow our own vegetables, improve my swimming to compete in a triathlon, and learn to play the guitar that has sat in the corner of the living room for 5 years. 


As it happens, my super-mum goals remain resoundingly unmet at the 6 month mark.  But in the post-swimming moment I realised that the only goal that matters to me now is raising a happy, healthy baby who knows unconditional love.  Because now I am mum, I understand this.  And so my previous horror was replaced by a nod, smile, and a warm, contented pride that little G and I were seen as so inseparable to the world.  I am little G's mum.


Keep Calm and Carry On Linking Sunday
 

8 comments:

  1. I hardly knew any of the names of my kid's friend's mum's unless they were close and went to each others houses. What I find funny is when a child shouts 'mum' in the playground and everyone turns around :) #kcacols

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    1. And you just can't ask after a few meet ups... British politeness!! Thanks for reading.

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  2. This is a lovely perspective, I still do the same now on the school runs, we are known as our littles mums, not often by our names, I like this in part as its pride and I love being Leo's mum...sometimes I think as a parent you can feel like you loose a bit of your self, though you do grow in an amazing way. But then on nights our and seeing my friends etc I am Jade so I like I have me and mum me. Welcome to parenthood lovely, sounds like your rocking it. Thank you for linking up to #KCACOLS We hope you can join us next week x

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    1. Thanks for reading Jade. Yes it's definitely easy to feel like you've lost your individuality, although I've got pretty good at using my mum side to my advantage; people are so much more friendly and helpful when you have a pram in tow!

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  3. There's a few mums at the baby group we go to and I don'y have a clue what their names are! This post is so true.

    #KCACOLS

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    1. It's when you want to swap phone numbers and you realise you don't know what name to tap in... awkward!! Thanks for reading

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  4. Iam still Olivia's mum. When her friends come into my work they always shout, with the exception of 2, hi Olivia's mum. She is 10 and has been friends with these kids a long time! #kcacols

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