Archives for March 2016

The Last Post

Well. That’s a bit dramatic, isn’t it?

But I suppose it is a little (just a little). This will be the last ever post on Mothering Mushroom. I could have just drifted off silently, as many blogs do, but this has been such a blast that I didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye.

The decision to stop writing here has been a long time coming, and various things this year have made me rethink more and more both how much of Mushroom’s life I share online, and the amount of time and energy I can afford to invest in various parts of my life. The start of this year has been particularly challenging, and something (well, more than one thing but we’re talking about this, now…) had to give. Coupled with the fact that Mushroom is becoming an increasingly private person as he grows (he recently turned five) and more and more often tells me firmly “No”, when I ask whether I can share something he’s said, I decided it is time to press the stop button here.

I’ll continue to write Mushroom’s annual letters but these will be kept private from now on, only for me to look back on, and to share with Mushroom when he’s older. The rest – the reviews, the snippets of conversation, my personal parenting thoughts… All of this will stop, now. I’ll miss it. From my first ever post, I’ve always been warmed by the response to this little blog and I’m so grateful for the online mother sister friends I’ve made here, many of which I now even see in real life, too (you know who you are)!

If I feel on occasion to still write on my experience of parenthood, you will most likely find it in the form of more essays over at Raising Mothers. Otherwise, I do also write about writing, creativity and personal development (with an occasional ‘life lesson’ via my son) over on my business blog, Writing.People.Poetry.

So, maybe I will see you around? But from Mothering Mushroom, I’ll end with one of his favourite expressions… “We’re over & out”.

 Mushroom and Me

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For all my mother sister friends… Happy Mother’s Day!

My latest essay over at Raising Mothers reflects on the importance of female friendships and their evolution. I only touch on mother sister friends in the essay briefly, saying:

“While all my friends are wonderfully supportive of my parenting choices, there are just some things that you need to talk about with those who have been through, or are going through, the same. My son is highly sensitive, spirited and until he was almost two, he was a terrible sleeper (that reads like it’s a bad thing. It’s not, it’s just who he was. He didn’t sleep well. Neither did I until I had him). So I gravitated towards women with similar children, who also prefer a gentler parenting approach. In my circle I have a wide range of friends who use different parenting methods, all of which I respect but during the messier moments of motherhood, it’s those with the most similar approach I reach out to first. That’s just how it is.”

This doesn’t begin to describe the ways in which mother sister friends provide a specific sort of friendship often in both an emotional and practical way.

These friends:

  • Listen without judgement to the messier parenting stuff, that we may be reluctant to share with some
  • Offer their own experiences up as reminders that none of us are perfect
  • Don’t mind if we talk about our children all the time, but also (especially when the children are very young),
  • Remind us of who we are as individuals, rather than extensions of our children
  • And more. Much, much more.

As I mention in my essay, my sister friends are often taken for granted – I don’t thank them for being there often enough, because that’s sort of part of the deal… But I wanted to thank them all with these words.

And as for you, reading this… I hope you find all the sister friends you need in your life, just when you need them, and I wish you a wonderful Mother’s Day!

MummyduckandchicksMD_MotheringMushroom

Now I’m off to wish all my mother sister friends the same. 🙂

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