WOMEN' S HE ALTH


MOTHERS AND MOTHERING


Personal insights from some of the LivingNow women on what it means to be a mother.


HOW BEING A MUM KEEPS ME YOUNG by Justine Dyas, our longest serving admin and all-rounder, who recently left


I’ve been parenting for the past 25 years, most of it on my own. I am blessed with three wonderful humans: 25yo female, 16yo male, 11yo female. I’ve got some big age gaps amongst my kids; so have the experience of parenting at different stages of my life. This has its pros and cons – like everything in life. One of the most important things


I’ve learnt is relating. You know… you’re stressed, bills need to be paid, the car’s broken down, the cat’s vomited in the bedroom, washing needs to be done and a child is freaking out over some (in your perception) minuscule thing that is soooo irrelevant to your adult experience at the time! It’s annoying and frustrating! But take that moment and remember. Remember when you were that age, remember how you felt, remember how important that ‘minuscule’ thing was to your younger self. Drop all the adult ‘importance’… and remember… and feel… and be that younger self. Relate and understand… to your child and yourself. You’ve been there; you’ve been that age. Help them to understand what they’re going through is important… to them and to you. And reconnect with your younger you.


12 MAY 2017


MY MUM, MY ROLE MODEL by Phillipa Huynh, web geek


Although she is no longer with us, I feel honoured to have had such a progressive, wise and down-to-earth woman as my mum. A teacher for over 40 years, my mum was the woman to give the ‘naughty’ kid a cuddle because she looked beyond the behaviour to the little child in need of love. She was the woman you could ask life’s most difficult questions and expect thoroughly considered answers. And she was the woman you could have a good belly laugh with – even if it was at her own expense. I miss my mum more than any words could do justice. But she lives on in my attitudes towards my son’s behaviour, through my work imparting my own wisdom, and through my ability to have a good laugh at myself and stay grounded. I may have lost my mum, but I consider myself very lucky to have grown up with her as my role model.


A LOVE SO DEEP by Sonya Murphy, graphic designer


I remember the day I became a mother like it was yesterday. I spent a nervous nine months not knowing what to expect of motherhood. At 2.20am on 22nd July, 1987, my daughter was born. Placed into my arms shortly after birth, her eyes


open wide, she looked intensely into mine, deeply into my soul. Two years later I had the same experience when my second daughter was born. The first connection between newborn and mother: soul-to-soul, pure love. I experienced that connection again


when my mother was on her deathbed. Three days and nights I spent by her side, at times sleeping fitfully in a chair, constantly holding her hand. Occasionally she would open her eyes and look deeply into mine, the energy of love palpable. The connection I had with my mother


is the same connection I have with my daughters – a love so deep it can never be broken, a true soul connection.


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