Good things and bad things that happen to you as a mum

[shelley672]

Hi,
I am a student and mum studying a design course with the Open University (which I highly recommend for any mums who can find a small amount of spare time). I am currently developing a board game about being a mum, for my course and I would be really grateful for your thoughts. I need to create a list of good and bad things that happen to mums. These will then be used to create bonus and penalty cards for my game. As a mum to two girls aged three and four I have been able to list quite a few things but would be interested to hear from other mums what their experiences are. What are the things that make you happy in a day? What makes you pull you hair out?! It would be useful for me to know the ages of your children too.
Many thanks in advance for any feedback you can give me.
Shelley

You cook their favourite food only for them to say "I don't like that anymore"

Your teenage daughter is constantly embarrassed by what you wear but is always borrowing your stuff.

Thanks for taking the time to share your ideas purepurple. I guess I have the clothes issues to come in the future. 'I don't like that any more' started as soon as they could talk!

Hi, you are doing well to go uni and be a mum !
hope I can give you some ideas although you may already have experienced these. I have two children ds (7 years and dd 2 years)
BAD GOOD
falling down stairs Hugs,cuddles
almost being squashed by cupboard saying I love you mum
(dh rescued her just in time!) Birthdays,christmas, days
not getting time for you out
falling over doing well at school
housework(never ending) first times they do things
illness
can't think of anymore at the mo, hope these help.

sorry my lists have got mixed up when I posted message! hope you can make sense of it

Hi, DS is 6 and I have just come back from watching his football training in the pouring rain !

Bad things - getting soaked, freezing and wishing I was still in bed.

Good things - walking home, still getting wetter than wet listening to him talking about how he scored the winning goal...heart melts :)

Bad thing - doing everything possible not to start big homework project
Good thing - hugs and thank yous and genuine pride in the finished product

Bad - baby does humongous leaky poo just as you are about to leave the house and already late.

Accidentally shutting toddler's fingers in a door.

Anything resulting in a visit to A&E. ("Go directly to A&E. Do not pass Go. Do not collect £200" )

Ominous silences from the next room.

Repeated night wake-ups (teething, covers fallen off, comforter lost, need wee-wee, "just making sure you are there mummy", ....)

Child copies you swearing after one of the above incidents.

Good - children manage to play together/separately for 10 whole minutes without anyone hitting anyone, crying, breaking anything or falling over.

When you sneak into their bedrooms and they are fast asleep looking all angelic and smelling lovely.

Strangers complimenting you unexpectedly on their behaviour.

Rare/unexpected compliments from the children (of the "you are a lovely mummy" variety).

Snuggling.

Hey there, good luck with the course! I have DD aged 8 and DS aged 5.

Good stuff:

• The bit where your baby gets all fat and creasy and luscious, and you're allowed to kiss their fat creasy luscious self all over
• The massive whole-body hugs
• Watching your older child do something kind for your younger child
• Seeing your younger child hero-worship your older child
• Watching them sleep. Thinking you might actually explode from how much you love them
• The first night they sleep through
• The mad conversations about why cats like / don't like cheese, and whether cars get lonely at night
• The first time they make you something as a present
• Throwing them their first birthday party. Spending most of it celebrating the fact that you've survived the year
• Seeing them get totally fascinated with unexpected things, like posting stones into the drain-cover in the back garden, or falling passionately in love with a particular brick from the brick-box

Bad stuff:

• Giving birth and realising that your body has not magically returned to its former state
• Looking in the mirror six weeks later and realising that it still has not magically returned to its former state
• About a year down the line, finally acknowledging that your body will never magically return to its former state
• The moment when you discover that, for no rational reason, you simply cannot bear your MiL to be anywhere near the baby. My best explanation for this is that I found it weird that she was related to my baby, but not to me. (For the record, my MiL is lovely. Even at the time I was ashamed of myself. But I still didn't like her holding my babies.)
• Giving your baby your purse or your keys to play with in their pushchair, then getting home and discovering they have secretly thrown the purse / keys away when you weren't looking
• That gigantic, hollow-headed, double-barrelled sneeze thing
• Anything to do with pureed carrots

Ok well my baby is only 7 months old but I do have some very memborable moments from so far:

Good... the first smile, giggle, squeak of laughter; breastfeeding; co-sleeping; her wolfing down one of mummy's homemade purees; playing together with a load of pots and pans, wooden spoons etc; her crying when I leave the room; the first babbles of constant 'dadadada' even though I keep telling her my name is 'mama'; dressing her up in adorable little outfits; watching other people coo over her.

Not so good... teething in the dead of night; nappy rash and metanium; projectile vomits, particularly the ones cover you from head to toe just as you're about to walk out the door; suddenly noticing a full nappy just as you're about to walk out the door; screaming blue murder on a crowded bus even though there is nothing actually wrong just wanting attention and having to explain this to every nosey parker who wants to know what on earth I am doing or not doing to the poor child; trying to cut fingernails/toenails.

Ooo the not so good list looks longer than the good! Haha looks much worse than I meant it to be, the goods of course far outweigh the bads.

Both good and bad: when you toddler decides she wants to cuddle her baby sister and grabs her by the head into a big bear hug. (I still feel weak at the memory)

Good things
When the randomly tell you they love you and give you a hug for no reason.
Watching them sleeping
When they are kind to other children
When they tell jokes - often only funny to them

Bad things
When they fight and argue with their siblings
When they are sick
When the fart in your face
When they ask you to see if thier bottom needs wiping.
How the never have a lie in apart from when you need to get somewhere really early
How it is impossible to get them to hurry up

Love these posts! outrageous your post made me laugh, all so true!

Mine are 2 and 4 months and for me (trying not to repeat any):

Good - the holy grail of drinking a whole cup of tea while it is still hot
- getting out of the house with everything you need on time with everyone looking neat and tidy
- seeing them laugh histerically
- giving them a bubble bath

Bad - being so tired that you would actually pefer to be waterboarded than this particular form of torture
- The heart stopping moment when they nearly run in front of a car
- your toddler having a public tantrum and feeling like everyone is judging you

BAD
2yr old DD says "Mummy I can say this word: "shit!"!"
hangover with 2 preschoolers jumping on your bed

GOOD
elderly couples in cafes admiring your gorgeous, well-behaved, well-spoken DC
whispering "I love you" to then as they fall asleep and hearing one of them mumble it back in semi sleep

Good - when your LO is asleep and you finally get a chance for that luxury poo

Bad - when you're sitting having your luxury poo and your LO wakes up screaming blue murder

DS is 8.5 months.

Wow, thank you so much to all of you for taking the time to help me. I will definitely be using your ideas in my game which is turning out to be quite comical, thanks largely to all of you and your great sense of humour- we would be insane without that! I can really relate to so many of these. Thank you again.

you are doing U101 aren't you? I did it last year and really enjoyed it. I did a school run game, so did cards for things like 'you have to go home and get the forgotten lunchbox' or 'you have to take the dog to the emergency vets'. But I love the idea of the luxury poo, ha ha!! good luck with your studies! Keep a good supply of post it notes!