What has motherhood helped you to see or understand?

[Portofino]

And how has it enriched you?

Have left it late to do my homework for my course tonight? Any great thoughts I can steal use for inspiration?

Motherhood:

• made me realise just how much my mother loved me and how I took it for granted and treated her badly [those teenage years heh!]
• taught me never to judge others (which I miss!)
• allowed me to experience an intensity of love that I never knew existed

It's been an absolute blast and I feel blessed every day

All the things everyone else has said, plus that I will never have a tidy house again until I'm about 55. And I don't care.

It has helped me to understand that I wasn't put on this earth to be 'perfect' (physically) and that I'm not letting anybody down by being ordinary. My body conceived, bore, delivered, breastfed and recovered from two children!!! and that means my body wasn't some crappy little traitor. I used to feel the real me inside was beautiful and the body was a traitor who let me down by being so ordinary. I don't feel like that at all now. I feel like why the hell did I ever berate myself for not being beautiful, when only about 5% of the population is anyway!! and that is a genetic lottery.

I'm sure I will sound cracked. I'm sure you've all learned much deeper wiser more useful things.

Ashamed to say I don't think I ever really loved anyone before I had my kids. The love I feel for them so far outstrips anything I've ever felt for men or friends or even family. It's almost ferocious. That sounds a bit intense, but the love you have for your children is so intense, it's almost overwhelming at times.

And all the wise stuff above too of course, like nature being as strong an impulse as nurture, that you have to work with who they are, not make them who they are, that you don't know what tiredness is until they're born. The SHOCK of having a 24/7/52 weeks a year job unpaid with no leave diminishes with time, and has made me grow up, very belatedly.

It's also taught me to identify almost every semi precious stone on the earth and list the noble gases and jump for joy at spending whole days in the Science Museum. I wanted girls before I had kids and now I can't imagine a greater joy than having boys.

PisceslOndon, I really agree with this

"that i'm physically and mentally stronger than i could ever imagine, yet have become even more emotional". absolutely. I am more compassionate but not in a wishy washy way. I'm stronger too.

I also agree with the poster who said that she used to be quite fatalistic but now she has 'The Fear". Having children means you're no longer in total control of your own happiness. When Nicole Richie was anorexic, Liionel Richie said 'you're only as happy as your happiest child' and I agreed with that.

Gosh Magaly, that's so true. The Fear is so prevalent!

I am far far more patient at my core, than I ever could have imagined.

That being a parent is so incredibly challenging and rewarding, but at the end of the day NOTHING in the world feels like a hug from my daughter - something about those small arms slipping around my neck that makes everything else immaterial.

This is what it's all about isn't it - that someone without kids would read all of these posts and just not get it.
I have to add just one more thing - motherhood has taught me to never, ever put anything off till tomorrow. Tomorrow there might be sunshine ... or a tummy bug

I once read a paragraph of a book where the feeling of motherhood was described in the most wonderful way and I can't remember where it was (something else motherhood has brought :°). It was a male author though and it was about being part of the clockwork of life and time and it was just perfect.
goes off to flick through bookshelves

That my mental health absolutely depends on getting enough sleep.

That puree'd chicken is YUMMY. Why don't adults eat blended chicken?

That the flat, non-plussed feeling I had for the first couple of weeks was just the baby blues and then it would all come right.

That it is REALLY, REALLY hard to be as good a mum / wife / employee / friend / daughter as I want to be. And no, I don't feel ok about that yet.

That your own baby is infinitely cuter than the cutest baby you have ever cuddled before.

I know what unconditional love is.
I have more patience and strength than I ever knew ( but it does not apply to others, only baby)!
I know what true tiredness really is.
I know what hard work is.
I am a great mummy because I am funny and comforting, and it doesn't matter that I'm not thin anymore.

It is quite satisfying to pick someone else's nose, and clean their ears when BFing!

It's taught me to find answers to questions I hadn't even considered were questions before (today's is 'why does the sky move? Where does it go?)

It's taught me that there is somehow even more love inside than I knew when I had my second child.

And it's taught me that it really really really hurts when you step on a sticklebrick with no shoes on.

What was your answer to that, MissM?

It has taught me:

1. Overwhelming love, guilt and of course 'The Fear' (long car journeys / flights etc. will never be the same again).

1. An awareness of my own mortality and how I have to be here for them.

1. That I can manage on 5 hours broken sleep quite easily.

1. That I will make most decisions for the remainder of my life thinking about what is best for my DS's.

My answer to 'why does the sky move' was that it's very windy in the sky. As to 'where does it go' - that stumped me! I think I said something really blah like 'ooo, that's such a good question, you're such a clever girl to ask such clever questions'. Meanwhile she gave me her best 'yeah, whatever mum, just tell me the answer loser' look (and at three years old she has it off pat!)

the sky goes round the other side of the world, doesn't it?

Ah, of course! I'll tell her that in the morning.