Great Cookies Make a Great Mum

Last week was my toddler's 3rd birthday, and after I got over the shock that he was turning 3, I needed to make something for him to take to pre-school.

Of course in this day in age, it's not just as easy as cupcakes and toffee like when we had a cake stall at school. Now there are the dreaded allergies to consider. For our kindy it's nuts and eggs. Nuts are pretty easy to avoid, but making a cake that tastes ok, without eggs, not so easy.

So I hit the internet and found a few options but then one of my favourite ingredients and favourite cooks came to my rescue. Condensed milk and Betty Crocker!! Then end result was yummy chewy choc chip cookies with chocolate freckles on top, thanks condensed milk. But it was Betty who made them really special, thanks to a trick I saw on a packet of her very own cookie mix. So the cookies were transformed into cookie lollipops.

Now they might not look super flash in the photo but they were a raging success with both kids and other Mum's! Lots of "wow look at those" and "you'll have to give me the recipe!". Enough to make me blush with pride and to boost the self esteem to the dizzying heights of baking success!!

Today I felt like a great Mum.

Where do you sit on the Totem Pole?

Since becoming a Mum I have discovered there is a family totem pole, and those effected by it's rankings are not just the selfless, do-gooders of the world. I think every Mum suffers from it's ranking powers whether we chose to or not.

Now when I was first pregnant hubby said that he was worried if we had a baby I wouldn't have enough time or love left for him. What every parent tells you is that you just get more love, so there's always plenty to go around to hubby and every extra child that comes into your growing family. What they don't tell you is that there is a totem pole that each addition adds to.

You've probably been on this pole your whole life, but as more and more people get added to it, your rank becomes more and more obvious. For me, and for a lot of my friends who are Mum's this is how the ranking goes, top to bottom......

Kids

Hubby

Parents

Brothers and sisters

Friends

Housework

Me

Now the folks above me can jump up and down the pole depending on circumstances but the one constant is me, right at the bottom. I'm a Mum, a wife, a sister, a daughter, a friend, a housewife and somewhere in between, I think, I'm me. Problem is when you're on the bottom, the weight of everyone and everything else can sometimes squash you down making you smaller and smaller.

I would never not want to be the other things, all I wish is that I could strengthen my position on the pole just a little. Fortify my hold . . . . .  on me.

Where is the Mummy Off Switch?

It's 3am in the morning and I've just fed my baby. I make my regular trip to the loo and as I wash my hands make a mental note "need to buy more hand soap". On my way back up the hall I check on my son, pull up his covers and do my usual check of his forehead just in case there is a temperature sneaking up on him. Even as I get back into bed I pull the covers over hubby to make sure he doesn't get cold.

So my question is, where is the Mummy off switch?

Women are always multi taskers but after you have kids you just seem to be "on" 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Always writing those mental lists of what's next, what goes in the school bag tomorrow, what's for dinner, where did I put that??

Where always told to make time for ourselves, soak in a bath, read a book, get our hair done. I do these things, but even then I struggle to stop my Mummy brain working me over. I'm going to be especially brave here and say that even when I'm in the midst of "special time" with Daddy I've had a thought about washing or a job I have to do. Of course only in the early stages and it is most definitely not a reflection on Daddy, it's just this darn Mummy brain of mine.

I think it's almost the opposite of how men can just block everything else out and focus on just one thing, whether it be the job at hand, the footy or a pair of boobs!

I spoke to hubby about this and he says it all ties back to the Cave Man Days. Men just had to go out and hunt but women had to tend to the kids, the animals, the cave and pick the berries. We also decided that men tend to have a natural provide and protect instinct for their family. While us Mum's have the organise, nurture, protect, provide, feed, clothe, bathe, entertain and anything else under the sun "instinct"!

So it is an environmental thing or a biological thing. Do stay at home Dad's get Daddy brain? But again my question is, is there an off switch?