It’s been 18 lovely months since I was blessed to physically step into the land of motherhood. When I look back at these 18 months, I surprise myself how I’ve changed.
This isn’t a post about How Motherhood Has Changed Me as I’ve already written all about that but it’s a look back on how I’ve managed to actually grow as a parent. I am not the same parent I was a year ago, that’s so for sure.
When we all step into parenthood, it is no doubt like stepping into unknown territory and of course you’re going to be nervous as hell as there is no parenting book (no matter how many are published) that prepares you for what’s coming your way. It’s because we’re all different, our children are different – we are humans, we cannot abide by textbooks.
Let’s just take one example, I can use public transport! Yes, that’s right. I’ve always been fine going on the bus by myself but with a baby/toddler, I had always envisioned an inconsolable crying child in tow who’d no matter what I’d do would just scream and scream.
This thought put me off. I have indeed missed out on many things just because of this which I really regret but I guess we’ll just have to let bygones be bygones.
How did I grow out of this though? I had no choice, if I didn’t take this step then I would be missing out on taking my daughter to groups (as I work now) where she has a lot of fun with other little bubbas, I would’ve missed that excitement in her eyes whenever we go.
Is Little A the screaming child, I had cooked up in my mind? She is actually quite far from that. She loves looking at other people and playing peekaboo and she eventually falls asleep if she’s really tired out!
Similarly to this, I have avoided going to big shopping centres, we’ve been to several retail parks but not shopping malls like Westfield as an example, but the above picture just sums it all.
I realised it isn’t what I thought it would be like with a toddler that I made the trip twice in just 6 days! First time round, she slept through it all but the second time, she was wide awake, we took her out of the pram and let her explore and when it came to lunchtime, just put her back in the pram, handed her sandwiches to her which she munched on and soon after fell asleep at her normal nap time for 1.5 hours whilst we shopped and ate ourselves!
I know you must be thinking that this won’t last when she grows up it’ll be challenging but we’ll just leave that to the future, shall we?
Moving on, let’s talk about routine.
I have always been the Mum whose child has to eat and sleep at the same time everyday. I remember when Little A would go off routine, I’d start to panic but that’s no longer the case.
We still have a set routine, she does eat and nap around the same time but if she goes off routine because of course she will, she is human, I don’t panic at all.
Moreover, whenever there use to be a family get together, I’d always leave well in advance because I didn’t want to risk Little A falling asleep on the way home but for the past two months or so, I just make a judgment call, sometimes I leave early sometimes I leave late (late being 7:45pm that is) and if she does fall asleep on the way home then so be it.
This means I can have a nice time with my loved ones and Little A enjoys a lot too.
But when we are indeed at home, then I do stick to the same bedtime.
This was just a little snippet of how I’ve grown up in the past year, I could go on forever but I just wanted to relay that it’s perfectly alright to embrace parenthood the way you want. It’s just a learning curve, we can’t know the complete A to Z of parenting from day one because there isn’t any and that’s the beauty of it.
This was so lovely to read 😊 I totally agree with the change of routine being a bit scary! I'm the same if Cassius doesn't go down for a nap when he's supposed too but you can't control everything, no matter how hard us mummas try 😅 Yay for Little A enjoying big shopping trips out, they're always the most daunting 👍💜
Yes, I’ve learnt over the years that it is impossible to control! Sometimes you really do just have to go with the flow! Thanks for reading xx
Sounds like motherhood is suiting you well and a flexible take on routine worked well for me too. #CoolMumsClub
Being so rigid wasn’t doing any of us good, it’s just right to tackle things as they come, thanks for stopping by xx
Lovely post. Sounds like you're doing a brilliant job xx #coolmumclub
Thank you lovely xx
I'm still learning! Nearly six years on, two little ones later and I'm definitely not the scared, tense mum I was at the start. Yes there's things that I said I wouldn't do, but my two are happy and healthy and that's what counts #coolmumclub
That’s definitely all that matters really! Thanks for reading and sharing your experience xx
Sounds like you are growing very nicely! It's no mean feat being able to deal with public transport as a mum so congrats on that and it's always nice when you get to the point of not freaking about a detour from routine although it took me a LONG time to let go of that so well done! Thanks for linking up to #coolmumclub lovely x
I wish I had overcome my fear of public transport earlier on but I’m so glad that I finally managed too. Parenting is an amazing thing, how we all have the same goal but different paths leading to it, thanks for reading xx