Growing up, it’s easy to take for granted what our mothers do for us.
This is a letter to my Mum, and all mums out there – to say thank you. It will be never be enough, there are no words; this is a start.
Dear Mum,
I see it now. All of it. All of the things I couldn’t see when I was growing up.
The things you did for me, when I was incapable of doing them for myself.
The sacrifice you gave to grow me inside your body, to bring me into this world – painfully and beautifully.
The sacrifices you continued to make, to keep me healthy, to keep me alive!
Losing out on sleep; making sure I was fed and watered before you were; cleaning me; clothing me; loving me unconditionally.
I know that you didn’t choose to love me, you can’t help it – your maternal instinct is so strong that it’s physically impossible NOT to love me!
I don’t say that to sound arrogant, I say it because I feel the exact same way – no matter what she does, there is nothing that can stop me from loving her.
At times I feel like I took that love for granted, but I hope that I have done enough to make you see how much I love you and everything you did to make me the woman and the mother I am today.
As a Mum now, and a wife to a military man like you are, I see how much of motherhood you did on your own – mentally, physically…
Dad’s don’t do what we do, feel what we feel or even come close to knowing what it feels like – and it’s not their fault, I actually think it’s a pretty sacred thing that we get to experience – they just aren’t wired the way we are.
And then little girls like me, grow up to be Daddy’s girls….to think that they know more than Mum, but to always want to be Daddy’s little princess.
And I picked on you at times, that’s something I’m not proud of – I thought it was clever, funny – but I was wrong.
Because you gave up so much for me, things that you’ll never get back and for that, all you ever deserve was love and respect and not a quick-lipped, smart-arse for a daughter!
I am more like you than we both know, and that is my biggest strength.
If I can make my daughter feel as loved, safe, cared for and protected as you did for me – then I know I’m doing a good job.
I believe that a HUGE part of a mother’s job, is to raise a woman who cares and loves her own child unconditionally, unwaveringly and selflessly; you Mum have done this for me and I will be FOREVER grateful to you.
You gave a piece of yourself to me when I was born, and it’s only now that I have my own daughter that I really understand what that means.
I love you Mum x