Thursday 15 September 2016

Starting school and the social media guilt

Caleb started school yesterday. After him having almost 9 weeks off for the summer holidays, it seemed so surreal that his first day was finally here. There have been times over the holidays when I just wish that they would last longer and that I wouldn't have to send him to school and other times when he was being a beast that I thought that his time at school couldn't come soon enough!



Yesterday morning we were all up in good time for him to get ready. He seemed a little subdued which is quite unlike him and asked if I would be there with him at school, to which I responded that I wouldn't, but he seemed okay with that. Seth came with us to drop him off at school, which I was glad for! I always appreciate that bit of moral support, ha! We walked around the building to Caleb's classroom and he held my hand the entire time but as soon as we got there, he dropped my hand, allowed me to kiss him goodbye and went in quite happily! I was so pleased that he was okay and it definitely made it easier for me. Seth looked at me to see if I was okay and I actually was, I didn't cry which I was surprised about as I thought that I would.

Would it have been wrong if I did cry? No, of course it wouldn't, I'm sending my baby to school for the first time and it's a big deal. Is it wrong that I didn't cry? No. It's still a big deal that it's his first day at school, but it just didn't happen and that's fine too.

In the last couple of weeks leading up to Caleb starting school, even though I have tried to avoid it, there have been so many poems, etc. all over social media about children starting school, sending our babies away (as if they were going away forever!) and how we would lose them. One of them I found particularly lovely and horrible at the same time and I bawled my eyes out. It was one of those where the parent is apprehensive about letting her child go and then there is a teacher's response about how she will look after the child. Anyway, it's lovely but it made me sob. I was feeling completely fine about Caleb starting school until I read that. It took me a couple of days and then I was feeling fine again but it did make me think about how much things like that and social media can influence the way we think and wonder if we're doing it right! By "it", I mean motherhood, life, sending kids off to school, all that stuff. Caleb was going to be going to school and that's just what happens when they turn four. I felt a little sentimental and emotional about it but nothing major. Then when I read all of the sentimental stuff, or some friends' statuses saying how sad they are to send their children off to school and I wonder, do I not care enough? Should I be more bothered about this than I actually am? AM I EMOTIONALLY DEAD??!

The conclusion I came to is that it's fine to feel as I am and have been feeling. It doesn't make me a rubbish Mum because I didn't cry as I dropped Caleb off and it doesn't make you a weak Mum if you cried when you dropped your child off. We all just deal with things in different ways and that's okay. Now despite how it may seem, I actually like social media, I use it all the time! I'm on facebook, instagram and twitter (although I still haven't got to grips with how twitter works!), I have a blog, etc. But I think that so often people, including myself can almost use it as a measuring stick to rate their performance. I will look at people's photos of an amazing day out with their children and they all have big smiles on their faces and on that day, I will have had a particularly rubbish day where I have been in a bad mood, the kids have been in a bad mood and everything has gone wrong. And sometimes I look at those pictures and feel like I'm not a great Mum.

A couple of days ago, a friend of mine posted a collage of pictures on facebook of her, her husband and her daughter and what looks like it was a wonderful day out. She had commented that it was a great day, but that she was exhausted as her daughter was teething and running away a lot of the time and at one point in the day, she had been surrounded by loads of wasps. You would never guess that from the picture and her commentary just made me smile because it was so honest! As Seth has said to me before, "the only reason people take pictures of bad things is for insurance purposes" (car accidents, etc. And it's SO TRUE! We don't often see the rough times in those photos that we see. Perhaps I'm as guilty of that as anyone. There's nothing wrong with posting pictures of all the fun times, indeed they should be documented! But what I'm trying to learn is not to judge how I am as a mother by what I see on facebook and instagram. I have good Mum days and bad Mum days. I sometimes shout at my children and they have had cereal for dinner on more than one occasion because on that day I just can't be bothered to cook.  I think that it can be so easy to compare other people's best with our worst and feel inferior and inadequate because of that.

At the end of the day, I've decided that we are all just people, Mums, husbands, wives, whatever, just going about, living our lives and trying to do the best that we can.There's no right or wrong way to do it (unless it's illegal of course, then there is definitely a wrong way to do it!) and no right or wrong way to act in particular circumstances. And again back to the whole starting school thing - it's easy to think that there is a certain way that you should be feeling because that is how some other people might feel but what we do and how we feel is and should be down to us, without anything else influencing us. This post has ended up being a bit of a rant hasn't it?! I guess that what I'm trying to say is just be yourself in how you think and feel and do what is right for you. THE END!
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Monday 12 September 2016

Caleb turns 4!

Caleb turned 4 on the 20th July. He has been looking forward to being 4 for ages, as he is the youngest of most of his friends. He also has been wanting the game Hungry Hippos since January and I have managed to keep stalling by saying that he needs to be 4 before he can have it because that's what it says on the box!

The morning of his Birthday came and we went into his room, singing Happy Birthday to him. His response was, "thank you for my Birthday, I was waiting to be 4!". Bless him! He opened his present from Levi, which was a Cars bike helmet. He didn't pick up on the hint though and he had to go into the lounge and unveil his present to realise that it went with the Cars bike that we had bought him. He was pretty underwhelmed at first but once Seth had gone to work and Levi had gone down for a nap, he got a lot more excited about it and had a great time riding it around the lounge!



Mum came at lunch time and Caleb was so excited to see her, as always!  Her Birthday present for him was Hungry Hippos so needless to say, his little life was made! It was so fun watching him and Mum playing with it.



Once Levi was awake, we went to a new dessert place in town for some Birthday gelato, then we went to the park so that Caleb could ride his bike. I wasn't sure how well he would do considering he has never ridden a bike before. He had stabilisers which obviously makes life easier but I was amazed at how well he did. he was just off, no problems at all!


He absolutely loved being on his bike and had so much fun riding it. I had to keep running after him so it was a great workout for me too, ha ha! He must have cycled about two miles in total, I'm amazed that his little legs would allow him to do that much in one day!



It was such a fun day and Caleb was so excited the whole time, I'm so glad that he enjoyed his fourth Birthday.
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Wednesday 7 September 2016

Baby Olivia's blessing

At the beginning of June, my great niece, Olivia was blessed. Yes, that's right, my niece's daughter! That makes me feel old, ha! Olivia is an absolutely gorgeous little baby and the blessing day was the first time I saw her. She has a perfect little face and lovely dark hair, she really is a little beauty. It was a lovely day as it meant that a lot of the family were all there together in one place and I always love a good family get together!



I got to have some cuddles with Olivia which was so nice! She seemed so tiny as I compare everyone to Levi, who is MY baby! My boys just loved her and Caleb kept going up to her to stroke her cheeks and hands.


Well, Caleb seemed to love her the most, Levi was just loving being able to run around wherever he wanted, ha!

Obviously as it was a family occasion, lots of photos needed to be taken so here are a few! Note the little line of sick running down Mum's arm ;)

 


About two seconds after that photo was taken of me and Olivia, she threw up all over my top, ha ha! I didn't even care, it's funny how now that I have my own children, babies throwing up on me just doesn't bother me like it would have done pre-motherhood!







It was a beautiful day so after church we had cake and drinks outside on the grass and just enjoyed being with each other. It was a lovely day.
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