to wonder if you've ever felt overawed at how much little kids trust you?

[Extrastout]

Which is clearly a very pressing question at 4am in the morning.
Anyway, I'll go on since I'm here.

Don't know why it has popped into my head, but it was dd's birthday party age 6 or 7 at softplay.

Off they all popped, no worries. Anyway, a little while in, dd brings one of her little friends to me as if I was the oracle of all things wise because her little friend had cut her hand somehow (like a papercut). DD, in her unwavering faith in me, was looking for a resolution to this issue.

As you might imagine, just 2 of the other Mammies had stayed and I was sitting with them. I could feel the weight of my dd's expectations, this little one's trust, and the judging (not there - they are lovely) of the other two mothers there present.

Thanks to the blessed curse of high heels and frequent blisters on my feet, I always carry plasters with me, so magically cured this grave injury.

Anyway point?

I have never felt in such a position of trust apart from when I gave birth. The absolute trust that a 'Mammy' will sort it from a little shy girl.

It's a privilege I think. Other Mammy's were nodding together 'I had not plasters, have you any?' etc. lol, and I felt like for once I aced being a Mum.

Give me a break - it's 4am. I'm talking nonsense as I haven't slept in 36 hours and have no idea why I had to share this useless piece of information with the universe.

And good morning to you all who wake up to this thread in 2 hours. I'm sorry! Will somebody let me sleep!!!!!!!!!

Extra

Maybe. Also I'm one of the odd ones who didn't call mum (she's now dead) from being very little if I was ill in the night it was my dad that got up.

My mum seemed to make a lot of things worse so I didn't call her for anything.

Outfoxed I bet your Mum managed to calm you down enough to sort things though? Seems to be what we're experts at.

I believe she went for an old classic “have you done everything you need to” “yes” “are you prepared for every outcome” “yes” “then there is no point getting yourself in a tizz is there” “no mum” 😂
29 years of over dramatic children really prepares you for any eventuality apparently!

Sassh, yes I was the same in the middle of the night, always called my Dad. My mother would eat me alive, whereas my Dad was a very kind man.

But despite all of that, I would call my mother in a crisis now rather than my Dad. My Dad will make all the right mutterings, but my Mum will actually sort shit out.
My mother is a menace really. But I sort of love her anyway.

Mums are strange creatures. We spend half a lifetime in crisis management (child rearing). I hope most of us have empathy. But we're trusted more than men I guess, and probably for good reason if you want to boil it down to statistics.

I prefer the fluffier statement that Mums rule the world.

Outfoxed, yes, they really can calm a hysterical drama lol. Probably learned from our 2 year old tantrums.
My mother is exactly the same.

"Have you done such and such." Yes.

"Well then, what are you on about - you always were prone to dramatics (followed by a heavy sigh). Anyway, what's the weather like over there?"

I've had this the other way round. At one point when ds was a toddler and was showing me something proudly (drawing or whatever) I realised just how much his self esteem depended on my approval and how easy it would be to either meanly or accidentally crush him :(

Yup Stealth, it's a constant responsibility to them, knowing how much trust they place in you and hence how much power you have over them.
For a few short years, you are their world.

I'm not a mum (yet) but know what you mean about being overwhelmed by small children. I remember meeting my close friend's child at her home and being told to not be offended if they stayed away from me but her child didn't like strangers.
I was sat in their home when the child (two years approx), just walked up to me and sat themselves down on me.
My friend was stunned. It was a level of trust that I'd not really experienced before. It really was overwhelming.

Ah Andromeida, yes, that's it exactly. They just trust some people and it's a privileged position to be in when it's you they decide to trust.

I thought of this thread because I am watching gogglesprogs and the children’s innocence and kindness is making me feel all emotional.
What lovely children they are

It warmed my heart when dd messages me from first term at uni because her friend was poorly and they didn’t know how best to care for her. Still the Oracle, despite Google!

I have been through the 'mummy can fix everything' stage, and the 'mother knows nothing' stage, back to the 'Mum will know' stage and now, sadly, I seem to have reached the ' we had better help mum because she's getting old' stage 😭 I am still appreciably under 60 and still have all my marbles, thank you very much! I seem to have become the admin manager for the whole family now though, (addresses, birthdays etc) since my own Mum died, so I guess I am still relied on for some things 😊

I remember being really really tiny and my mum feeling me that, if I ever got lost, I should find either a policeman or a mummy with a buggy. That's stayed with me for over 30 years. Mummies solve everything!

Telling, not feeling!

This makes me feel so sad, because I never felt this way about my mum. She loved (still loves) me very much, took her role as mum very seriously, did all the mum things... And yet... She's never been the person I look to for help. (My Dad is, much more).

She had a shitty childhood, and made an enormous effort to do it differently for us - largely successfully. But clearly not completely, so I wish I knew what it was so that I could try to do it better for DD - we learn so much of our parenting from our own parents.

I don't think it's just fixing things - since my Mum did do that. Listening to us maybe, validating what was happening? Or making me feel she was actively on my side? I really wish I knew!

"Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children." W M Thackeray - I loved this quote when I heard it paraphrased in The Crow but I never understood it until I had children myself.

My "I need my mummy" moment happened when I was at university and got proper flu. I travelled 300 miles on a train pretty much out of it but just needed to get home to my mum. Luckily I had made the trip a few times so could do it on autopilot.