July 10
“My patience, resolutions and beliefs are tested to the limits – sometimes daily.”*
Right at this moment one of my challenges is the constant, tuneless whistling from my elder son. When my boys were babies it was getting them to sleep or trying to figure out why they were crying. On any given day now, it might be squabbling, fighting, teasing, screaming, shouting or rudeness. Who’d be a parent? We might well question ourselves after the event, but we can’t very well put them back! Just how we find those inner resources, how we constantly demand more of ourselves, how we keep marching up that hill with a smile on our face and gladness in our heart at the sight of our ‘babies’ is one of life’s mysteries.
* © from Being Mummy by Anne‑marie Taplin published April 2007
Last updated 01 July 2010.
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Photograph © Kate Elmes from 'Being Mummy'
Feature story
My darkest edges
At about half past midnight on a hot January night in 2009 I sat bolt upright in bed with chest pains. A golf ball was quickly forming in the middle of my chest...
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What's new this month
Being a parent
is a bit like riding an express train,
don't you think?
Hurtling from one day to the next, sometimes it feels like time just rushes by.
Parenting can be exhilarating, joyful, bittersweet, maddening or exhausting – sometimes a combination of all these emotions in one day! And then our babies leave home, flee the nest… it can be devastating, a blessed relief or both!
Parenting can also erode our sense of ourselves as creative people. Although a labour of love, raising children can be monotonous and isolating,
...that’s why we all need to express ourselves.
Parenting Express gives a voice to parents and others who care for children. If you write creative nonfiction, poetry or fiction about your experiences of giving birth and the challenges and rewards of raising the next generation, we want to hear from you.
Anne-marie Taplin - About this website
About me
About my book
Read excerpt from The Divided Heart, Art and Motherhood on the topic of creativity and motherhood