The One that's for Mums Everywhere
It's Mother's Day today. And, through my own wisened experience, I guess you could also call 'Compare Your Life to Everybody's Else's Life on Facebook Day'. So have a happy one folks - especially all you mums out there who really DON'T need another way to beat yourself up.
I love social media, I do. For years it has connected me to the outside world whilst my hubby worked the longest hours and left me alone with two screaming children. It has also allowed me to stay in loving (albeit digital) contact with people I adore whilst I saw fit to live in several different countries over several different years. It has even provided me with endless ways to chuckle over a cold coffee (babies biting their brother's fingers, dogs asking for bacon) and well up in full-on hormonal stylee without judgement from a single person (Will Smith getting his motivational freak on, twin babies rescuing each other from falling furniture).
But like a good old, trusty double-edged sword we all know that social media can also make us feel, well, shit. And Mother's Day is no exception. I'm not saying we shouldn't share pictures of the gifts and cards we've received. The abundances of flowers and cuddles that give us sheer joy. Joy is something that should be shared in every way possible, especially if it helps it to grow in our hearts and then spill out of us in a shameless, explosive joy-fest.
But perhaps spare a thought for the families that don't fit the mould. There are partners who work away, can't be there, have never been there or simply don't exist. There are women who never became mums - through their own choice or not - but who remain part of the warm, steady and essential beating heart of femininity that fires the core of the earth. There are mums who don't get any kind of break or breakfast in bed or even a scrap of a flower for a multitude of different reasons, and mother's day and every other day just rolls along with the same challenges, the same threats that she has to face head-on or shrink back into a corner with or without her children.
So (hot on the trail of International Women's Day), for every picture we post showing the sprinkling of joy that has been bestowed upon us today, can't we also match that with a post that lifts, supports and empowers women for the full-on maternal love beasts that we are? Of course we can.
If you're lucky enough to be with your mini love beasts today, regardless of the presence or absence of gifts, cards and chocolates, make sure you squeeze those little bodies, pinch those rosy cheeks, and kiss those delicious lips. Then grab your phone and post something divine. I know I will.
Go well,
Abi
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