Mummy Friday......

I would be confident in saying that i have gained most of my inspiration over the years, not from clothes or jewels or anything shiny (which normally attracts my attention!) but from my mummy. One of my favourite things this year has been the beginning of "Mummy Fridays..." something which started as a way to avoid lonely friday night's in after the demise of my last relationship. This distraction has ended up becoming a brilliant way to bond with my mum and have the one to one time that i always craved as a child.

My childhood was a fairly normal and happy one. My parents divorced when i was about 11, leaving my mum as a single parent with 2 almost teenage children and a pretty hefty mortgage to keep paying. Having been a dutiful wife and mother - an almost domestic goddess you could say, she had never worked since marrying my dad as we were very comfortable with just the one wage in the family. I will always remember as month's went by, the mornings when letters would drop through the door, demands for money for household bills which unsuprisingly a single mother on benefits and a part time job was having difficulty in keeping up with. At some point though, something gave. She decided that she could keep motionless in the place in her life, jepordising the home she had built for her and her children - or she could do something about it. She decided to go back to college to complete her GCSE's - leaving school at 15 was something alot more common in her day! The 9 months to complete 3 GCSE's came and went and she decided to move forward towards a career in medicine by starting another year of the adult equivalent to A levels. Again this came and went - seems like such an age ago now. Things were not easy whilst these 2 years happened, money was even more stretched and her time was limited between study and working whenever she could to bring the extra cash in to keep us all going. I don't know if i could have kept going had i been in her shoes. Looking back i hadn't exactly turned into the perfect teenager and i know i made things much more difficult at times. I know she often threatened to just give up and get a full time job doing anything, but she never did.

Once the second year had passed, she managed to enrolle on a nursing course at the University of East Anglia. This went on for 3 years and i could see everyday she loved it a little bit more. Things were easier by this time - nurses studying are entitled to a bursary as they train. It really made all the difference and soon enough things started to return to normal.

In 2004, my mum graduated with a diploma in mental health nursing and has been working as a mental health and eldery nurse for the past 6 years. Watching her completely change everything about her life for the better, when it all could have fallen apart is honestly the most amazing thing i have ever seen anyone do. All the work that she had to put in was so tough for her and i like to think that "Mummy Fridays" are something that we can both appreciate now i am older. I most definately appreciate my mum alot more than i did when i was that terrible age of 14.

I think the reason we clashed so much as i grew up is because we are both such similar people, everyday i do become more and more like her. I used to despise people telling me this when i was younger, but now i secretly love to hear it. I couldn't possibly reveal her actual age (if she ever reads this then she would literally kill me dead!) but i think she's still got it! If i end up looking like she does after 2 kids and a life full of drama, then i will be one happy girly indeed!

She is the reason i come out with the most awful "Lindsey-isms" (as they have aptly named by work colleagues)...her brains are most definately in tact, yet her general common sense is not completely what i would call...desirable. She has had me crying with laughter to the point where i have heard the words "be careful with that tissue, the dye may come out of it!" When we go on day trips together she is the one who always has the coke bottle filled with pims in her handbag and not to mention the countless times i have had to play the adult when picking her up from nights out with friends! There is no end to our silliness and i think that's what makes our relationship unique. We understand, even when noone else does!