Mothers Day

A quick shout out to all the mum's.  

It is only my second mothers day and to be honest I was a little shell-shocked this time last year, so it in some ways this feels like my first.... and I'm kinda excited.  Is that weird?

Actually I am thinking a lot of my own Mum back in Australia and lamenting the distance between us.  Distance from family and friends is probably... no definitely... the most challenging aspect of 'ex-patting' and although I have lived with distance from my own parents since I was seventeen, I still wonder how different life would be, and how wonderful life could be, if we lived next door to each other today.  Miss May would have the security of Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles and Cousins around her, the consistency of enduring and long term friendships, she would 'live Australian' and hopefully feel Australian.  Certainly I would benefit from the mothering wisdom of my Mum and Mother-in-Law who have, between them raised five children into successful and happy adults.

Then I remember talking to my Mum, years and years ago about her parenting experience, long before I even considered becoming a parent myself.  She was contemplating her off-spring and how different the three of us were (are) and the how the paths we were seeking in life were so wildly divergent.

"Oh well" she said...
"I think it is testimony to great parenting when kids turn out to be nothing like each other,  and do things their parents only dreamed of!"**

And there it is... I realise I have benefited from exceptional parenting, the kind which loves so much it allows me to be my own person.  My husband and I have chosen a path which has taken us away from home for a number of years but we know our parents, however they yearn for us to be closer, will support us in following that path.

So thanks Nanna, and Grandma... we miss you!

Happy Mothers Day peeps...


**I will admit a little poetic license here but that is the gist of it!