PARENTHOOD.IE

In an ideal world, these three phrases would have nothing to do with each other.  In an ideal world, they would live far, far away from each other.  So far in fact, that none would be aware of the others' existence.

Book Tour.

Moving House.

Preparing for holidays.

In an ideal world, these three phrases would have nothing to do with each other.  In an ideal world, they would live far, far away from each other.  So far in fact, that none would be aware of the others' existence.

Unfortunately, not only are these three phrases great new bed buddies, they also have something else in common.

Me.

Yup, that's right!  Over the course of the next eight weeks we will be scheduling, traveling to and from, publicizing and putting on a series of nationwide coffee mornings/book launches (the first two of which happened in Cork and Kildare and were HUGELY successful and a great deal of fun!) as well as preparing to go to Canada to visit my parents and packing up our entire lives in boxes to move to an as yet unknown house.

Sounds like fun, hey?

Um, yeah... if you're the kind of person who thrives on stress and takes a hit of adrenaline for breakfast each morning (personally, I prefer a soft boiled egg on toast.)

Things were obviously going too well.  Someone out there must have realized that we had it too easy.  I mean come on, in the first three weeks alone we had buckets of publicity as Mammy Diaries was splashed all over the local and National media, we were taking orders from book sellers and life in general was going pretty good.  Sure we had a trip arranged home to Canada to visit my family, but with a little help from my brother in law, we would still be able to keep the ship sailing smooth and true to course.

And then came the letter...

I didn't think much of it at first.  We'd gotten a notice that our lease was up the previous week and they wanted to know would we be renewing our contract.  No biggie, but with everything that was going on, we let it fall by the wayside.  So when the second letter came from the estate agents, we assumed it was simply a reminder to get our act in gear and sign the flipping papers. It wasn't until I read the words “Landlord requires possession of property”  that I realized how wrong we were.

Our Landlords are coming home.  To our home.  Our home which unfortunately is actually their home.   They're lovely people and we don't begrudge them even a little bit, but it will be sad to leave what we've thought of as our, “Dream House,”  since we moved in over 2 years ago.  I feel like leaving sticky notes around the place, to let them  know how much this place was loved, how every corner tells a little piece of our story.

I'd place one in the kitchen, where Lily took her first steps.

I'd place another in the play room, where Anna was born.

I'd cover the back garden in them, labeling the herb garden that's grown so high and the fruits and vegetables we won't be around to harvest.

I'd place one in the bedroom we all shared and in the bathrooms that the girls so lovingly cleaned with the toilet brush.

I'd place one on every wall that Anna has scrawled her masterpieces upon and the bare patches where vigorous scrubbing has worn the paint clean off.

I'd place them on the front step where we sat and watched the first boxes of the newly published “Mammy Diaries,” arrive from the printers and the kitchen table upon which the bulk of it was written.

I'd place one on every neighbor who we've gotten to know and love and on their children who the girls count as their friends.

And when I was done all of that, I'd place sticky notes all over the town and let them know exactly what a wonderful time we've had here and just how much we will miss it.

We've got a lot of work ahead of us these next few weeks.  Best I get started at it now...

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Maria Moulton has the blog MammyDiaries and is currently launching her book the Mammy Diaries, a book where Irish mums tell their stories. The Mammy Diaries is the result of almost three years worth of interviews with over 200 mothers who have given birth in Ireland. Between them they have reared over 500 children, changed hundreds of thousands of nappies and left God knows how many cups of tea untouched on the kitchen counter. They have stretch marks on their bellies and snot marks on their sweaters.

They have been through everything from SPD to PND. They have given birth in hospital, at home and in the back seat of the car. They have had vaginal births, c-sections and VBAC’s. They have breast fed and bottle fed, gone back to work and stayed at home. They know about sleepless nights, early mornings and what it’s like to have your entire world turned upside down and inside out as you suddenly become the most important person in someone else’s universe.

And they are sharing it all with you.

Mammy Diaries is available at Easons stores as well as online at www.mammydiaries.ie for €15.00 plus shipping.