I was chatting to a dear friend the other day who was feeling the weight of being a Mum! I knew exactly how she felt … more along the lines of the non-stop multitasking a mum needs to do, especially when there are a “few” childrenabout!

I remembered an article I read from a book on Babycare, when my oldest (who is now 28!) was a newborn, and I wanted to encourage her with it. I have extracted it and posted it here – Thank you GK Chesterton!

“A Mother’s Special Role

Daily, mothers recognise the magnitude of a mother’s role – so do others.

Especially during the first few years of her child’s life, a mother must perform a multitude of functions. She is her child’s first and most important contact with the world and through her he will learn about himself. In “What’s Wrong With The World”, Gilbert K. Chesterton wrote that the career of a mother within the home is vaster than the career-seeking of a woman away from the home. It is, he said,

‘To be Queen Elizabeth within a definite area deciding sales, banquet, labours, and holidays; to be Whitely within a certain area, providing toys, boots, sheets, cakes and books; to be Aristotle within a certain area, teaching morals, theology, and hygiene: I can understand how this might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it. How can it be a large career to tell other people’s children about the Rule of Three and a small career to tell one’s own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman’s function is laborious because it is gigantic, not because it is minute.’”

ps… I think it may apply to dad’s too… especially if they are the Housedad/husband!