Since the sun has started shining and the days have got longer, I find myself thinking back to last year so much. I miss it so much! There are many reasons why I miss it including:
1. Not having to get up for work
2. Not having to get up and get ready for work
3. Not having to get up for work, get ready for work and get Thomas ready for nursery
4. Planning days around where to walk to, where to have coffee, which cake to try…
There are, however, two main reasons I miss it.
I found myself a great group of first time mothers to share the whole experience with. We met through yoga, breastfeeding workshops, NCT, the internet, and came together and spent one summer experiencing the world as new mothers. There was always someone to listen, someone to care, and someone to moan to. We came from all walks of life but none of that mattered because we were all learning the same thing, how to be parents. Pregnancy, labour and birth became a distant memory as the summer months approached (an added bonus from having Christmas babies!). We spent our days in the sunshine, or in the rain, pushing our prams around Glasgow’s Southside, from one park to the next. We learnt about each other as well as about motherhood and our friendships grew.
Come September I went back to work. Thomas thrived at nursery but I was only part-time to begin with so I still got to meet up with my mummy friends. Then they all started going back to work, one by one our days off altered, less people were around, and the group got smaller. Now we only catch up occasionally – like this weekend at the Southside festival in Queens Park. We laughed, we chatted and we reminisced about last summer. These women will always be part of my heart, because they shared a huge part of my life, my journey to becoming a mother. Learning that it was OK to sometimes make mistakes, to sometimes feel sad, to sometimes be so happy your heart could burst. I am proud and privileged to call them my friends.