International Women’s Day

I realise that I am one of the millions of people who are today writing about International Women’s Day and my thoughts on being a woman in the world. I am in awe of so many men and women and have many places I can look to for inspiration and guidance.

There are women the world over who are inspirational such as powerful women in governments, business, human rights, music, celebrity and writing. I am quite sure if I asked any woman she would have her list of go to inspirational women and the lists would differ greatly depending on personality and lifestyle.

I am not going to use this post to talk about women I find inspiring as I often do that in my blog posts as standard. I would like to talk about how I feel about being a woman and ask what does being a woman mean to you? I think my views are slightly off as I am not raising daughters. I have to use the viewpoint of raising boys who will respect women and be inspired to look at the achievements of everyone around them regardless of their sex.

I have spent time on Instagram this morning (big shocker I know!) and there are so many pictures of mothers who are raising daughters and their hopes and dreams for these little girls who have such a massive and varied world to grow up in. If I’m being totally honest I feel a little left out, I’m the mum who spent the morning arguing with Leo about how it is not appropriate to go to school with no pants on. I have been up since 0300 hours as my mind is constantly going over worries and issues so much so that I can’t sleep and I have been branded useless by Nate as I can’t tell him how much a McClaren F1 car would set him back or how many horse powers (Nate’s words not mine) they have.

I am struggling with being a human being at times at the moment let alone a woman, wife, mum and holder of massive parenting responsibility. How can I show my boys how much women should be respected and how important they are? Well I think the one thing I can say I am able to show is overcoming adversity. We have all had our fair share of issues in our lives and I don’t think there is a woman walking this earth who hasn’t. Yes okay some issues are tiny in comparison to others but that is all subjective. What I might see as huge someone else might see as tiny and vice versa. Just because people may not appreciate what it means or meant to you as an individual doesn’t mean that it wasn’t an issue and that you didn’t overcome it.

Every day I work on issues in my life of some kind, as many of you know at the moment its self confidence and self esteem issues and feeling like I’m not quite sure exactly who I am following a hysterectomy and six months off work. Some days I am really good at facing these issues head on and coping, solving and working on being a better person than I was yesterday. Other days I sit on the sofa and feel like all I can do is eat rubbish and watch reality TV which is somehow addictive but a total waste of time (Keeping up with the Kardashians?!)

The boys have been acutely aware that mummy has been ill and has been down, it must have been obvious over the last year going from issue to issue culminating in my operation. They have however seen me physically grow stronger, do more and recover. They watch me now being brighter, aware that I have issues but working on them. Stepping slowly into the sunlight and trying to stay there and not look back. How many other women have had to embrace such a journey that you can think of?

Whether it be a bad break up or divorce, ill health, career changes, family issues, friendship issues, dramatic changes in circumstances I can think of lots of women who have embraced these new beginnings and become stronger and wiser because of them. If the boys learn nothing else from me about women it will be that we take on board what life throws at us and we deal with it. Not always quickly and rarely on our own but we deal with it because we have to. We are women, we are depended on by so many and we depend on others. We are an integral part of how the wheel of this world turns and we should be proud of ourselves for this.

What defines us as women is whatever we want it to be. I, living in a house full of boys have to be quite strong in my identity as a woman otherwise the boy things take over. I say this while looking down at a remote controlled Porsche on the floor beside me, a drill on the dresser and some kind of electronic device with lots of wires and flashing lights on charging in the nearest plug socket. I have the responsibility of being the female influence to the boys and that is one that I take very seriously and am honoured to have.

Today we celebrate women all over the world and I am proud to say I am one of you. We can lead, achieve, influence and raise the future of our world and if that’s not an important job I don’t know what is. So whatever you do, stay at home mum, career woman, partner, single and happy hold your head high today and each day. You are doing the best you can and if today doesn’t go so well there is always tomorrow.

I’m not sure who said this but I wholeheartedly agree, ‘The women whom I love and admire for their strength and grace did not get that way because shit worked out. They got that way because shit went wrong and they handled it. They handled it in a thousand different ways on a thousand different days, but they handled it. Those women are my superheroes.’