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I sat in the car, tears steaming down my face. I'd finally hit breaking point. So for a brief moment, I was alone, save the two sleeping babes behind me, and I let it all out. I'd been holding it together for so long, really only allowing my husband to catch glimpse of how I was really feeling... but why?  I couldn't figure out why I'd held it all in. I'd been rapidly approaching breaking point for some time. I was exhausted. I have a new baby, a two year old and a four year old. I'm basically on my own with them for the bulk of the time. My hubby is incredibly helpful, and the most amazing dad, but he's our bread and butter. I run the house and the day to day, and he works incredibly hard to support us. We have limited family around. There's no 'drop the kids to nanna's so I can have a break', that simply isn't an option (and to be honest, I have bouts of envy for those that do). It's all on us. Our support network, while all amazing people, are either interstate, or just like us. Young families, with young babes. There are always offers of 'if you ever need anything' and I have no doubts about their validity. Yet, to call on someone for help, is to place an extra pressure on them that they just don't need. So we tend to keep it to ourselves. Sure, we were the ones that made the choices. The choices that have lead us to this point, and set of circumstances in our lives... and maybe that's why I haven't let on. It was definitely for fear of judgement... but I couldn't work out whether it was judgement from others I feared, or judgement from myself. Probably both. It's almost as if we have this insane expectation on ourselves to be super women. To do it all, and to have it all... but whatever you do, don't let on that it's hard, you may risk coming across as ungrateful. Or at least that's the way I felt about it... and if I appear as ungrateful for my situation, then I must somehow be failing in my motherly pursuits. Cue self judgment and criticism. Many of us simply don't live in the 'village' that we used to in times gone by. People knew their neighbours, and the milkman by name. I personally only know one other family in my street, it's just the way life seems to be now. My grandmother had her sister close by, or at least a tram ride away, and even my mother had two sets of grandparents nearby for the occasional parenting vacation. I used to love our days with my grandmother, and I'm sure my mother loved those days too. As mums these days, many of us are expected to deal with daily solo parenting, plus often the stress and pressure of working, juggling jobs and parenting life, living away from family and friends, and the general pressures of living in 2017. All while dealing with young babies, sleepless nights, lengthy recoveries from eventful births, and let's not forget the hormones! It's not easy. Nothing worth doing well, ever is... and admitting that it can be incredibly hard, does not mean you're ungrateful. We're raising small humans. It IS hard.  So as I sat in the quiet, having the first real 'release' that I've allowed myself in these tumultuous last few weeks, I began to see them for what they really were. Exciting, exhausting, overwhelmingly beautiful. We've had the incredible blessing of adding another health baby, directly off the back of a traumatic birth and a more difficult recovery than I'm used to. 10 short weeks ago, my body went to hell and back while attempting to deliver the precious bundle that I currently have sleeping on my lap... it was traumatic for my body as well as my mind, and that's something I need to remember. The problem is not that we don't necessarily have the resources around us (whether it be within arms reach, or at the other end of the phone), or the help around us when truly needed. It's that we don't allow ourselves to ask for it. We don't want to bother others, or admit to ourselves that we might really need it. We have to remove this expectation that we have to do it all on our own. There's strength in numbers, and we need to find those numbers wherever and however we can...
2 Comments
9/8/2017 21:54:43
So true. I've had these thought several times in the last few months. We used to raise children as part of a village, your neighbours were there for you, your family often close by. I like you have no family close by (unless a 2.5hr flight is close) and this being my first child I haven't really built up relationship with other young families. All my previous/current friendships and social interactions were work related so now that I'm not there they have drifted away. Thank goodness for my mum's group, hopefully what we have sticks. It is hard without others to lean on and I am so stubborn when it comes to asking for help. Like so many I feel I should be able to cope and do it alone. I hope you ask for help when needed and find someone to lean on when needed. 29/8/2017 04:37:29
I definitely agree with your sentiments. It's very frequent to find someone with a kind heart nowadays. Most people would ignore you, even if you're stuck in a difficult situation. The help we receive from people are mostly passive advice. If you meet someone who would help you in your dire times, make sure to keep him close. People like them are hard to find and they're quite rare in this world. Leave a Reply. |
Behind the blog...‘The Mummysomniac’ is a lifestyle, motherhood and most recently, pregnancy blog, founded in 2015 by Kirsty McKenzie. She’s a mum of three, blogging about the highs and lows of motherhood, with a straight forward and honest approach, as well as a little bit of humour. Kirsty is passionate about sharing the realities of #MumLife, not the cookie cutter, high gloss version Archives
October 2017
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