GEMummy

Are you familiar with the drinking game ‘Never Have I Ever?’ It’s quite a simple drinking game. You think of something you have never done and then if anyone in your company that evening has done it, they drink. So here goes…Never have I ever attempted to write a blog post *sips virtual drink* therefore please bare with me whilst I find my feet. Moving swiftly on however, GEMummy, it’s my username and the title of this post and I figured I would explain what it stands for and who I am.

So hi, I am 25 years old, married to my husband now for two years but been together six and we have two wonderful little boys who at the time of writing this are 2 years old and 7 months old. I work part-time as a teaching assistant and my husband and I are extremely lucky that our boys are looked after throughout the week by friends, family and a fantastic nursery. I absolutely love my job and I am currently gaining the experience needed to become a HLTA therefore I can honestly say I wouldn’t change my job for the world but its been tough. Going back to work after my first baby, O, was hard but going back after having my second baby, J, has been hand on heart the toughest thing I have faced so far but more about that later on.

Whilst on MAT leave with J, I attended a course for mum’s who had suffered from postnatal depression and perinatal anxiety and one of the first things we talked about was this concept of being a perfect mother and how we put so much pressure on ourselves to become this perfect mother and how actually being a perfect mother isn’t always the best for your child. Your child just needs you to be the best you can be for them. They then followed this up with a quote which read ‘There are no ways to be a perfect mother, but a million ways to be a good enough one’ and this quote spoke to me. The whole idea of the perfect mother and the good enough mother really spoke to me and I swore that day that I was going to stop trying to be the perfect mother and become a ‘good enough mum.’ So when I was then asked to enter a username, I knew I wanted to incorporate ‘good enough’ in it. GoodEnoughMummy seemed way too long and off putting so I shortened down good enough and became GEMummy. It was just a happy coincidence that it reads like ‘Gem Mummy!!’

You may have clocked in that last paragraph that I mentioned about postnatal depression and perinatal anxiety. I have had it both times after both boys and I have also been on medication for anxiety since I was 19 years old. It is something that is close to my heart and I am hoping that I will be able to use my blog to explore deeper into these subjects and maybe hopefully if a new mummy (or daddy!) stumbles across this, reassure them that they are not alone in how they are feeling.

So if you are still reading this, then thank you for putting up with my ramblings! I appreciate that this post was rather disjointed and I am sure as I pen more and more posts my writing will become better and better (fingers crossed!). Till next time!