December 2011
“Children are not a job you can leave, or a country you can return from. No one can guarantee you a child who matches your imaginings. You will get what you’re given – and there’s no turning back.”*
After ten years of motherhood, I still grapple with the truth of this brutally honest fact. There’s no walking away when things get tough. There’s no resigning to look for another job, one that pays better or appreciates your worth. There’s usually no gratitude for all the sheer, dogged hard work you put in on a daily (and often nightly) basis. And sometimes there’s no one around to de-brief with when you’ve reached your limit and have resorted to screaming to make yourself heard!
* From The Divided Heart, Art and Motherhood by Rachel Power
Last updated 05 December 2011.
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Photograph © Mick Bradley from 'Being Mummy'
Feature story
How would you like your eggs?
I was emptying out my bedside drawers the other day when I stumbled across a half-empty box of oral contraceptives. It seemed like a lifetime ago that I had taken them and so I flipped the packet around to have a look at the issue date. 2001...
What's new this month
Being a parent
is a bit like riding an express train,
don't you think?
Hurtling from one day to the next, sometimes it feels like time just rushes by.
Parenting can be exhilarating, joyful, bittersweet, maddening or exhausting – sometimes a combination of all these emotions in one day! And then our babies leave home, flee the nest… it can be devastating, a blessed relief or both!
Parenting can also erode our sense of ourselves as creative people. Although a labour of love, raising children can be monotonous and isolating,
...that’s why we all need to express ourselves.
Parenting Express gives a voice to parents and others who care for children. If you write creative nonfiction, poetry or fiction about your experiences of giving birth and the challenges and rewards of raising the next generation, we want to hear from you.
Anne-marie Taplin - About this website
About me
About my book
Read excerpt from The Divided Heart, Art and Motherhood on the topic of creativity and motherhood