ON PARENTING: Celebrating motherhood…

If you are like me, then you will be startled with yourself when it occurs to you that you have been a mother 10 years and counting! Later this year, it will actually be 11 years since I became a mother.

That little creature that I carried in my womb for nine months is close to being 11 full years. She has since grown that it’s hard to imagine that it was only just a while back when the mid wife shocked me and I mean shocked….with the news that I had been with child nine full weeks! And now this fellow has grown by such leaps and bounds, she is her grandmother’s height! Oh yes, I got me some tall chap but who said she would not take after me? Don’t ask about my mother… I must have taken my grandfather’s genes!

Today, I take the time to celebrate motherhood…to pay tribute to all the mothers out there. Being someone’s mummy must one of the most fulfilling noble causes this side of heaven. Even the greatest in the world has someone out there they call mummy! Although there are a few peculiar cases, surely a mother is like no other. I must confess there are many times when I quietly wonder if I am to my children what only a mother can be to her children.

You see, your mother bonds with you in such a way that it’s hard to put it in words. She carries you for those long nine months…actually I think they are 10months because it’s a whole whooping 40 weeks? That time is both special and challenging all at the same time. You feel the child kick you from within, you walk around with a nearly full bladder all the time as the child weighs down heavy on you, you grow in all directions and whereas some really glow, there are those of us who look like the double storied house that is about to fall into pieces!

Then you go through labour pains and even if it were an elective C-section, the pain afterwards is quite severe. You must perform all these roles single-handedly because no matter how loving/caring the father of the child is, they can’t help you with the carrying or the pushing. That is a road you walk alone albeit with cheering fans sometimes, but it’s you who runs the race. Ohhh its quite something being someone’s mother! Happy mother’s day to all of you. You are my gallant heroes!

­— jmabola@yahoo.com