08/09/2017
I want to tell you a story.
Once upon a time, a little girl was born. Her parents didn't have much money, but her mother was very creative. They lived in a small apartment in a poor part of town; everywhere you looked in the apartment were plants that the mother tended almost as lovingly as she did the little girl, and the girl thought of her home as a jungle with vines everywhere.
The little girl and her mother spent countless hours sitting on the floor in their small apartment playing make believe with the little girl's toys. A favourite was a set of tiny farm animals, plastic trees and a little farmer ("Farmer Johnson"), which were used to create stories and nurture the little girl's imagination.
Forty years later, the grown woman who was that girl, can remember little of her early childhood but snippets, but the snippets are important to her. As an adult, she knows that logically, her mother must have done housework and other mundane stuff, but she doesn't remember that. She remembers her mother always having time for her, always being on the floor playing with her. And she loves seeing history repeat itself, watching her mother play with her grandson, sitting on the floor even though she is now in her sixties and getting up isn't easy anymore.
That little girl was me. And I would give almost anything to have photos of my mum and I playing on the floor like I remember we did. My mum gave me a precious gift for which I'll always be immensely grateful, but one day, my memory will fail me and what she did will cease to exist in my memory - and there will never be photos of it to remind me.
So to all of you who have little people who call you "mum" or "dad", what you do is important. You are shaping how this person will one day look back and view their life. You are a huge part of shaping their personality. Some days it's the most amazing, wonderful job in the world, some days, it's the sh*ttiest, but it's always, always important.
You are important. Please make sure what you do, who you are now, exists in photos - for those little people who will one day look back on all you did, and for yourself. You are so much, you do so much, you are more than enough and you matter so, so much.
Tara x