Respect

My son is 18 years old.  He is well dressed, clean shaven and has short hair. 

At work he is often treated badly by customers, when he is only helping them.

He works nights, usually finishing between 11-12pm and walks the hour it takes to get home as there is no public transport then.

At least once a week he is pulled up by the police.  Sometimes questioned as to what he is up to at that hour (they think he is younger than he is despite the fact that he is 6'2"), sometimes he is searched, sometimes his details are taken.

He is without fail polite and co-operative, as he should be.

More often than not the police are aggressive in their manner and words.

I understand that being a police officer is often a hard and thankless job, but surely there should be a certain level of people skills required for the job.

When did it become OK for people to neglect basic manners, common courtesy and respect when dealing with those younger than us.

It would make everyone's life just a little bit brighter if we were all a little kinder to one another.

Don't you agree?

Love Jo xxx

Parenting is hard...

… really HARD sometimes.

The hours are unlimited, there is rarely time off and weekends blur into just another day!

It can be boring and monotonous, messy, frustrating, isolating and bloody lonely.  There are times when it is terrifying, stressful and noisy.

After 48 hours of no sleep, sitting in your bombsite of a house, with unwashed hair and dishes and laundry threatening to take over the house who hasn’t dreamed of the time before kids? Virtually no responsibility, money, time to yourself - whether it is to read, shower, go to the loo alone…hell, even 30 seconds to moisturise for god’s sake…

Who, after hours of trying to get a screaming baby to sleep doesn’t consider violence when some asshole wakes your little darling?  After your significant other has swanned off to work in a nice, clean peaceful workplace, with time for coffee and maybe to read the paper, little chance of being shat or vomited on, leaving you in the wreckage of your life, with cracked nipples and unidentified matter under your nails and in your fringe and then has the balls to walk back in and ask what you have been doing all day…well, you get the picture!

You yearn for the time when your baby eats solids, talks, walks…right up until they do.  Then you look back fondly to the days when they stayed where you put them, and didn’t answer every question with NO!

All of that said… Parenting is also the best thing in the world, so much more than just a job, the rewards can be so much greater.

The first smile, first words and steps, a squishy cuddle, all the milestones.  The time when your little boy stops rioting around the house, takes your face between his chubby little hands and says “I love you Mummy, you’re so beautiful” and lands a big sloppy kiss. 

The privilege of watching the little person you have created going out into the world, starting school, making friends, starting their first job. Of creating a useful member of society, a kind and caring individual who also knows his own mind and takes no shit from anyone, who stands up for what’s right and protects the weak. Nothing could make you prouder.

Not everyone gets the child they long for, I grieve for them.  Not everyone choses to have children, I respect that.

But, for ME, parenting has been the single most important achievement in my life...

So yes, parenting is hard, but so worth it!!!

Postpartum (or After-after birth…)

Mrs Woog certainly started something here didn't she?  There is an equally brilliant follow up post on her blog with gorgeous pictures of lots of ladies post-birth.

Jane, from mum-i-am also did a great post in response.  Check it out here.

I think that the idea resonated with so many of us as we are all sick of the picture perfect model style photos people chose to show after their babies are born, hair and make-up done, lumpy bits disguised. 

Far more beautiful are the pictures of a tired, sweaty mum with bloodshot eyes and a bird’s nest hairstyle!  Eyes glazed with a mix of triumph, exhaustion, sheer terror and quite often a liberal sprinkling of drugs!

A common theme in comments and posts is how gorgeous and lovely people’s Obstetricians were.  Mine alas was not.  A very serious and quite frankly unfriendly man with hands like bunches of bananas – have you notices that Ob/Gyn’s often have the largest hands, what is with that?  

Eye-watering....