Miss B's school show-and-tell this week seemed simple....."Tell us 3 special things about your mother'. At least I thought it was simple! 'Well', I asked, 'What do you think?'
"I don't know!', she screamed back at me! I was stunned. I started rattling off the basics...my favourite colour, my favourite food, etc etc. 'No, no, no!' she continued. 'That's not special enough!' So I thought harder! I didn't want my child to be the only one in class who didn't have a 'special' mother. What on earth made me special? What followed was the mother-of-all-tantrums (hers!), a particularly dented ego (mine!), a quick and desperate note to the teacher to ask for more information and a day's delay on the task and the kids being 15 minutes late for school!!!!
So throughout the day, that question has been playing on my mind? What makes me a 'special' mum? Am I a special mum? Is anyone? If there was a competition for all the special mums in the world, would I come last because my own daughter couldn't even tell me why I was special? Am I a failure??!!
She did, after much prodding, offer the statement, 'You look after me when I'm sick'. Does this make me special? Gee, I thought it just made me a typical mum.
So I have pondered and pondered this all day. I don't think I have the answer but I have come to the realisation that all of us are special mums in our own way. The sacrifices we make to raise our children are testimony to the fact that we are all special. The unconditional love that helps us to undertake circumstances with our children that we wouldn't dream of going through for anyone else. The day-to-day unpaid work that is never acknowledged yet is questioned if we don't do it. The constant 'on-the-job' learning that makes us double check everything we, as mums, say and do in the hopes of raising a successful adult into the world. The worrying, the anxiety, the stress! The dreams that we have for our children's futures. They make us all special.
And when I found Miss B's scrunched up piece of paper, I realised that I must be doing something special. At the bottom of her rejected 'Show and Tell' notes, she had written: 'My mum is special because I love her'. Sometimes it is the simple things that make life special.
To all the mums reading this....have a fantastic Mother's Day on Sunday! I have posted a picture for you all of one of the few drought tolerant flowers that I have left in my garden.....Grevillea Robin Gordon.
