A Mother’s Childhood
What My Childhood Taught Me About Motherhood
A Mother’s Childhood – In my mind’s eye, scenes from my childhood play like a movie projected onto a white sheet draped across the backyard fence. The memories like the colour of vintage photographs; filtered, faded, yellowed.
My children, at 7 and almost 6, are currently living their childhood while I live vicariously through them, remembering bits and pieces here and there. I liken the memories of my childhood to Polaroids; my individual moments captioned with an all encompassing statement of events. The in between and the details now lost to the dark and dusty recesses of a time long ago.
While I watch my daughters play, I find myself wondering what they will remember from their childhood, how their individual experiences might shape their minds and their futures. I worry about how my faults might influence them and how my insecurities might be interpreted and internalized within them. I wonder how my childhood shaped me, how it informed my adolescent and adult years. How it has informed the relationships that I have built with others and myself.
“How has my childhood shaped and moulded the person, the woman and the mother that I have become?”
A Mother’s Childhood – beholdher.life
The Influence of Our Childhood Shapes Us
I think about how childhood frames one’s life, how the first five years of life are critical to our development and growth. How the first five years are at the core of forming our relationship and our behavioral patterns. The childhood that we individually experience shapes us, it is the information we carry with us into adulthood. Childhood teaches us what we need to know about our immediate world; what to expect and from whom. No matter what one may experience, it is that experience that ultimately navigates our experience within our own unique adult world.
Last year, many of my therapy sessions focused on analyzing my childhood. It truly was a pivotal point along my healing path. It helped to redirect the conversations I was repeatedly having with myself, ones that were going nowhere while instructing my decent further down the spiral. When I began unpacking my childhood I began to shift my perspective, I began to look at the situations and the people involved in those situations differently. I began to empathize and do my best to relate to their situation and attempt to understand what they were bringing to the table.
The Shape of Forgiveness
I was practicing forgiveness and acceptance. For me and those involved. I was attempting to see our commonalities; their struggle as it compared to my struggle. I was actively attempting to see them as human beings experiencing this thing called life, exactly like I was experiencing my own so-called life. I was beginning to forgive myself which was the start of loving myself. This acceptance helped me extend my compassion and empathy further, passing it to those who had hurt me, those who I held some amount of resent for. Once this shift was engaged I could feel negative emotions transpose into peacefully aligned emotions. I saw a willingness to accept without feeling the need to change. I saw the human that I was in the humans that they were and are and it allowed me to shift for the positive, for the betterment for myself and my family.
A Mother’s Childhood – Into the wilds of youth…
My youngest is six, almost seven. She is bright and funny and so full of life. She has a magnetic charm that instantly captures your attention and your heart. Her hair golden under the sun, her smile wide and mouth open. She laughs as she runs in giant circles around the trampoline in the backyard. She is completely content in her own little world; the image of purity and innocence. She is happy and that happiness is simple for her to achieve. She lives in the moment, effortlessly.
It’s moments like that I am reminded of my memories of being a young girl. I recognize my six year old self reflect in my daughter’s eyes, through her movements and her exuberant spirit. I am transplanted to a time when I was carefree and innocent, tossing my blonde hair over my shoulder and speeding down the sidewalk on my Big Wheels Powder Puff. (Anyone else remember those from the 80’s?).
It was surreal; the sight of my daughter running circles super imposed over my memory of racing a Powder Puff; each of us six years old. I never want her to lose her spirit or in-the-moment way of being. I want her to be and to feel comfortable and safe enough to be.
There was a time when my innocence and contentment prevailed. A time before my self esteem and confidence tanked, before the self loathing, before I realized how all of this was affecting the progression of my life. In therapy, the work I tackled with my inner child broke my heart as I acknowledge the sadness my younger self endured. Part of my work with my inner child includes talking with my younger self and writing her letters. I’ve introduced myself as the woman she became, 30 some odd years later. I’ve listened and attempted to understand her needs. I’ve pondered how I can best meet those needs and how I will honour those within my 40-something self. I’ve apologized for abandoning her. She forgave me. Yet, still, I need to heal her to heal me. I have been working on my anxiety for a few years now.
My biggest take-away from the work I do with my inner child is that my chilldhood experiences have directly informed and influenced the way in which I operate, most notably (to me) how I operate within relationships, be those romantic or platonic. This is the information I must move forward with, and this is the information I must process, accept and learn from to improve my future and the relationship that will grow and evolve into that space.
A Mother’s Childhood – Transitioning from childhood to motherhood
Becoming a mother enriched my capacity for love and understanding. It was a flood of emotion, a rush of instant and unconditional love. It became clear that my role here was to protect, nourish and love these tiny beings; these perfect and pure pieces of the universe. Holding my babies, then and now, is to be encircled by love accentuated by a release of endorphins and my cup simply runneth over. Motherhood lead me to discover two things; that I wanted everyone to experience being held by this kind of love and that I was the one needing to be held by this kind of love. I needed to learn how to turn that love onto myself and actually trust and believe it.
Becoming a mother let me know that I had arrived! It became clear that my purpose in life was to raise my girls with a sense of security, stability and never-ending love and to learn how to mother myself, all the while sending vibes of unconditional love out into the universe. A mother provides a soft and safe place to fall while encouraging and lifting up her children to realize their potential and their unique brilliance. I need to be that, for all of us.
Related Article – The Mother-Guilt Effect
A mother’s love…
When the emotional flood gates of motherly love opened they created an overwhelming push to provide love for those who didn’t feel loved, for those who felt unworthy of love and for those who felt alone and unsafe. I wanted the orphans, the misfits, the weirdos and those who felt that they didn’t belong. I wanted to wrap my arms around them and share my capacity for love with them. I wanted them to feel safe and to let them know that; “everything is okay, I’ve got you.” I must first learn to attain this for myself so that I may extend it to those who need it.
All of the work and the healing thus far, has helped me to understand the art of relationships and it informs me to build better ones; especially with my daughters. The mother I need and the mother I choose to be is one who leads by example and loves with a complete and open heart.
What I have learned, and continue to learn, is that being good to myself – mind, body and spirit – is good for my girls. I need to lead by example, to transpose the lessons I’ve learned into healthy behaviours and expectations. It is my every intention to meet them with compassion, love and safety, to encourage and nurture positive, constructive and safe communication and to be gentle with our human tendencies, always adjusting with a mindful awareness of the greater good. I need this and they need this. That is our greater good.
My girls truly are my greatest gift. It is through their eyes that I learn how to become my best self; after all, they are what I am here for. For them I must heal my past grievances, forgive to silence the resentment, learn to accept people as intrinsically flawed and to do my very best to spread love and acceptance to all, for all.
To this day I am still working to love and accept my authentic self. I am still exploring and learning who I am and what I am to contribute to this world. But what I know is this; I get to be mumma to two magical pieces of this universe. I get to love them and laugh with them and raise them to be authentically themselves. In turn, I benefit from their innocence, their purity and their unique interpretation of life. I get to revisit my childhood through experiencing theirs. I am encouraged to be myself and to love that person, because they give me their love so freely. And, to them I am their beautiful mumma, I am their anchor, their safe place, their biggest cheerleader. I am right where I need to be. Motherhood truly is the best job and I am grateful for the journey and the lessons within.
Wow is all I can say. This was a very emotional read for me. So many parts of your story resonate with me. Thank you so much for sharing.
Thank you so much for reading! This one was a powerful one for me too. Starting to write again was one of my better ideas, thanks for supporting me and my process!
This is very true. As a mother you adapt to your children and not the other way around. Your babies make you the woman you never thought you could be without even realising it. I used to have naps every single day now I have zero and sit uo watching my son breathe and fart missing him being awake ragging my hair and clawing my face with his tiny hands. Brilliant writing xx
Thank you for your kind words, Mouthy Mum! I use to race out of the house for a solo trip to the grocery store, happy to have a moment to myself, only to stand in line missing my kids at the sight of other mums with their kids. Constant push and pull on the ol’ heart strings. But, I wouldn’t have it any other way! Take care. I look forward to your next post!
Lovely post. Yes, our childhood shapes how we would turn out to be eventually. I could actually relate a lot to your post. A beautiful one.
Thank you Manju SM! The more I open up the more I am able to relate to the world around me. Like, I’m not in this alone! Thanks for reading, I appreciate it!
Such a thoughtful and honest post! The psychology of our behavior is fascinating. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Thank you for reading!