As an adult, I am still learning things about my parents that I never knew as a child.
I am learning more about their own childhoods and about their struggles as young parents when they started their family.
You don’t think to ask when you’re a kid – and especially not as a sulky teenager! – ‘Hey, how is this parenting lark working out for you?’
Because as far as you’re concerned when you’re a kid – your parents were always parents.
In your innocent eyes, they were literally born to be your parent.
(If we’re going to get into an existential conversation on the matter, you may say that they very well WERE destined to be our parents and we, in turn, were destined to parent our own children).
But that conversation-which-needs-wine aside, I WASN’T always a parent to my kids – I had a life!
So here are the 10 things I would really like them to know about me (when they’re a little older):
1. I wanted to be a hairdresser when I was a little girl. Failing that, I was going to settle for mermaid.
2. I was an EXCELLENT hurling player. Not camogie – hurling. I used to kick several shades of shit out of the boys teams.
3. I wrote my first story when I was 6, my first song when I was 8 and I haven’t really stopped writing since.
4. I was once a singing waitress in New York and the city is still my favourite place in the entire world.
5. I was friends with your dad for 10 years before we started to go out with each other and then it took us another 8 years to get married. Ain’t nothing wrong with being SURE about your romantic partner.
6. I inherited my love of gardening from Grandad Hayden – he has passed the green finger gene on and you are WELCOME for all the fresh veg.
7. Giving birth to both of you was hands down the strongest and coolest thing I have ever done.
8. I cried a lot during the first few months of motherhood with new babies, sometimes with tiredness and frustration and sometimes with pure joy in my heart. I was also a bit of a nark for a few years. Sorry about that – hormones are a bitch.
9. Your dad and I worked our asses off to buy a nice home for you to grow up in – if you inherit it, I promise we’ll leave a few quid stitched into one of the couches. Go blow it on something you REALLY want.
10. I never knew what love was until I had both of you – thanks for being the best teachers I ever had.
What 10 things would you like your kids to know about you when they grow up? Let us know in the comments on Facebook.
