As a mother of two and living with my husband working away in Abu Dhabi I find myself spending a lot of time getting tied up with the mundane, boring but ultimately  necessary tasks like washing, cooking, cleaning and so on and so on. So when my daughter Briley (who is five) tells me “Mum, you are the best Mum in the whole wide world” I pause, smile and I take the time to take it in. I spent many seconds enjoying the warm, gooey feeling because to be fair she does not always think I am “the best” in fact there have been occasions when she has said quite the opposite. I think as a parent it is these small victories, those little moments of light that our children give us that make all the washing and cleaning in the world well, quite frankly worth it. I have two beautiful children and I don’t just say that because they are MY children, I genuinely believe they are beautiful but they still throw the odd “I hate you” and “You never let me do anything” at me. I don’t want to put anyone off having children because having children is amazing but damn, it is not always an easy or a thanked job. I love the little ‘wins’ the moments that make me happy my husband and I decided to have these little monsters darlings.

What made me the “best Mum” today, well I think that was because on Friday Briley had a shared lunch at her school which involved all us parents making our children’s favorite recipe to share for lunch with everyone else, now Briley requested Apple Sponge which is not really a lunch recipe but I thought what the heck this is about Briley not about what is healthy for lunch. Briley was stoked when she saw I had made little mini apple sponges in silicone muffin cups. The lunch was awesome it was great to meet other parents and let the toddlers have lunch with their siblings at school.  I was also quietly happy when Briley not only said “Mum your apple sponge is the best” but also because she said “other Mum’s made yucky salads and healthy fritters” so yes I’m going to take this as a ‘win’. Was it a competition? Not officially but if it was I won, I won in my daughters eyes and that is all that mattered.

Having Briley say that reminded me of what she said the other day in the car, we were parked outside my parents house picking up Ty (her brother), I was explaining that she wasn’t going in and that I was just going to run in and grab Ty. She paused and said “if it’s so late to be going home why don’t we get take aways for dinner because you don’t really have time to cook”. Now in that moment I found myself staring off into space, I was staring for two reasons the first because I was tempted by this idea of me not cooking but also because I didn’t want her to know I was tempted by her idea, I needed to pause,  I needed to be sure I was happy to get take aways before I gave her a response because once I said yes there was no going back. But in those few seconds of time lost in my thoughts assessing the situation Briley comes out with “Oh, um, this is awkward” and I cracked up, I couldn’t believe that she knew that saying and that she knew when to use it. So needless to say we had take-out for dinner (making me the best Mum that night too).