Around the World in 80 Clicks meme

I was tagged by Charlotte recently and I am finally getting around to catching up.

This is a global conversation about motherhood, specifically what (if anything) we enjoy about being a mother.  Are there differences between cultures, countries or even your friends down the road?   To get a better idea of what started this off, take a visit to the original post and blogger in Canada, Her Bad Mother.

I am now joining the conversation of Around The World Mums, and here are five things I like and/or dislike about being a Mum.

1. I love the exuberant cuddles and laughter of my daughter.  There truly is nothing quite like her unadulterated love and affection to bring an enormous smile to my face and a warm fuzzy feeling to my heart.


2. I love being able to watch her mind growing.  I find myself constantly amazed by her ability to learn new skills and fearlessly explore her environment.  Such curiosity and adventure is wonderful to watch.  It does make me slightly wistful to think how much of that natural ability we tend to lose as we grow older.


3. I don't always love the constancy of being a parent.  It's darned hard work being "on duty" all of the time, and it has been taking me quite a while to balance out my conflict of interest - Mummy-duty vs Individuality-maintenance.   I guess it's the mother's equivalent of work-life balance issues.


4. It's been an interesting adventure in self-discovery.  Motherhood has definitely been a patience-teacher and a flaw-exposer.  This is a double edged sword.  The realisation that some of your bad habits are bound to turn up in your children is not a wonderful epiphany.  The upside is that at least you know what you want to work on not passing on.   And, of course, you know that your good qualities are going to make the trip too.


5. I love the ability to share experiences, fun, knowledge and skills.   What better thing can there be than watching your children becoming a "person" with their own distinct personality and preferences?  For me, it's one of the best things about being a Mum.

Okay, now is the hard part.  I culled my blog reading a while ago as it was taking up so much time, and that leaves me with only a few potential onward links.  Funny though, the remaining blogs tend to have a mother as their author even if the blog has little or nothing specifically to do with family life.  What that means is: a couple of these folk may be surprised by the link - as I tend to lurk and enjoy their various forms of creativity. I hope they don't mind the intrusion.

Here are my mothers:  Andie in NZ; Sol in the UK; Patricia in the US; and Heidi in the US.