My Gift to Her – Happy Mother’s Day

March 2017 has already seen International Women’s Day (I wrote a little post about what that means to me) and it’s not long until Mother’s Day now. So it clearly is the month where we should celebrate the special women in our lives and think about the gifts they’ve given us to make us who we are today. Naturally, the female who has always been a consistent, strong, loving influence in my life, is my Mum. Today, I’m thinking about my gift to her…

My Gift to Her

As I’ve got older, I’ve realised just how lucky I’ve been to have had two amazing parents in my life. Parents that are still together and have shown me nothing but love and support throughout my life. Having listened to countless stories of mother and daughter fall-outs and screaming matches, I also realised that I’d never gone through that phase with my mum. In fact, since I can remember, we’ve been best friends. I don’t remember exactly when that happened or even thinking about it – we were just naturally best buds.

The Woman

I’m yet to meet someone who doesn’t like my mum. She’s not the centre of attention, she’s not the loudest, but she is totally and utterly down-to-earth and completely a good person, with a good heart.

My mum has always worked hard and she did a fantastic job of bringing-up my brother (having had to go back to work when he was just 3 months old) and then of course me (luckily she got 2 years off with me!). She’s now a wonderful Nanny to 3 grandchildren who all love her dearly.

She’s a total legend.

A Strong Influence

Somewhere, at the back of my mind, I’ve always thought I’d like to be more like my mum. More patient,  more laid-back. But alas, I’m slightly more highly-strung and emotional, but I like to think I’ve got her strength of character and silly sense of humour.

Now, having my own daughter, I realise just how much bloody work my mum put into bringing us up. How hard it is, how tiring, how lonely (at times), how sometimes thankless. Being a mum myself has given me a whole new insight into her world…how she must have felt watching me have operations, the worry! How she must have felt when she had to leave her children to go back to work. All those things. I now understand. I now appreciate so much more than I ever have.

So my gift to you mum, is total admiration and love. It’s the knowledge that you’ve brought-up a strong and loving daughter, who is now a strong and loving mother. My gift to you mum, is that you’ve set a legacy that both me and Flo will follow and maybe even her daughter and her daughter’s daughter.

And as someone who deserves nothing less, my gift to you mum, is a little pamper session and a little treat with some delicious champagne and luxury bathrobes from Christy.

Happy Mother’s Day everyone – I’m off to be with my little lady now. Enjoy

x

This post is in collaboration with Christy, who asked me to think about the influential woman in my life and think about my gift back to her.