Badges of motherhood

What badges did you wear today?

Here are mine. On the whole it was a great day. It had its moments, but it was still good.

And it makes me wonder do we celebrate enough the little things? Between the every day monotony and the other totally forgettable things that occur throughout our days, do we stop and celebrate our little but noteworthy (to us) achievements?

Because we should.

For a newborn mum, her most treasured badge of the day might be "I got out of my PJ's today"

For a mum with an autistic child, it might be "I got a smile from my child today"

For a working mum, it might be "I got to go home early and see my kids for longer today"

Sure there are the badges we'd rather not have to put on. You know the ones:

"Feeling stink for yelling at my kids today"


"Spent ages cooking dinner and no-one would eat it today"


"Broke my favourite (insert sentimental item here) today"


"Did nothing but clean up kid/cat/dog (insert relevant bodily function here) today"

And sometimes we're wearing these ones right alongside the celebratory badges.

And that's OK. It's just life.

There are days when we end up putting on a nasty badge before we get the opportunity to put on a nice one.

Some days we'll try all day to find just one celebratory badge to wear alongside all the not-so-nice ones that have accumulated, and we may not even find it.

But that's OK. It's life. And tomorrow IS another day. Thank goodness.

And when it comes, anticipate and celebrate every little quiet (or not so quiet) achievement as it happens. Pin that badge on. Because you my friend, you are worth celebrating. Even in the little things.

You are the without a doubt the best mama your kids could ever hope for, perfectly chosen for this very role. They know it and believe it, even when you might be struggling to.

And the best badge of all? The one I know I could choose to put on first each and every day despite not always deserving it and quite often forgetting completely about it? It's this one.