Bridging The Gap

Written by Nicole McAuley for her blog, These Wonder Years.

You can follow her on Instagram here!

These 2 pictures were taken a year apart. When I feel frustrated about my postnatal body, I remind myself that in the last year, it has made, grown, birthed and is still feeding another human being!

Naturally as Mothers, we all come from different backgrounds and beliefs, societal, cultural and experiential.

However, when we all come together under one roof at those baby classes or ‘Mums and Tots’ groups, from the school student to the Lord Mayor of Belfast, we are instantly humbled by a cup of warm tea and a chat about the perils of this emotional and physical (but wonderful) rollercoaster.

When you recognise the effort that it has taken that mother with the newborn to get out today, as she struggles to carry her baby bag packed for ANY emergency or 3 potential ‘poonamis.’

When you see another Mama breastfeeding in Starbucks, immediately providing you with the confidence to whip your boobs out at your baby’s earliest que over your (luke)warm coffee and able to finish your bun, rather than frantically scaling the walls for a disabled toilet while you pack up your many (unnecessary) belongings.

As other Mamas look on in admiration at your first attempt to get the baby into the sling solo, or squeeze a Bugaboo, a Bumbo, a weeks shop, your baby and your Granny into a Mini, you feel like a Boss!

So I ask one thing from us Mothers (and society in fact)… BE KIND. You don’t know who has been up since 4am with a teething baby and no help, who’s still got a sore bum as they do the ‘postnatal shuffle’ around the local shopping centre in desperate need to get out of the house. The one who has just received the bad news or who is watching you, so desperately wishing it was them!

Those loving, empathetic looks from one Mama to another in the GP waiting room at the immunisation clinic, that exchange of a baby wipe following an unexpected colic attack and that ability to talk to a total stranger with a pram like you’ve known them for years are the qualities we should be celebrating!

So next time you want to judge the Mama who is scrolling through her phone in the park (as this is the only respite she has had in the day), try not to. She made the effort to get herself and them out in attempt to seek some fresh air and entertain them.

The one who took up (nearly) 2 car parking spaces in order to be able to get her car seat out of her 3 door car with her sore back, just ignore it. If the car next to her parks too close, she can’t get home.

Or the one who is feeding her baby straight from the jar as she didn’t have the spare time to brush her hair let alone spend a day with the NutriBullet doing food prep, think twice! Sure, we might only be known as ‘Pippa’s’ Mummy (particularly when recognised in Mamas in Papas – WIN!) but at the minute, there is no title I am more proud of and I think my fellow Mamas would agree! (Most of the time).