Football boots in the hall, a pile of dirty washing the size of Mount Everest and a toilet seat that’s always up. Well I suppose that’s what you get when you live with a house full of men. My husband and two sons – my baby boys who overnight have transformed into strong handsome …men. My youngest turned 18 last week.

But it only seems like yesterday when I was doing the rounds of playgroup and nursery school drop offs, taking trips to the zoo and singing nursery rhymes.

But times change and children grow up. I have fantastic memories of those fun and busy days but my recollections are also tinged with elements of sadness too because those years will never come again, and as the saying goes, we can’t “turn the clock back.”

No, we’re into a new era where my boys are preparing to flee the nest and start their own exciting journeys into the world. For them, that’s a wonderful prospect; a life full of opportunities to take, freedom to explore and adventure to have. How lucky they are.

For me, I’m about to become a down sized mum, already not needed in the same way, my job description having been re written from its original form of “You are expected be available 24 hours a day to feed, wash, clothe, play and comfort me”  to the current one of  “We’ll call you when we need you – thanks”

As a result of this change I’m starting to experience a crisis of identity and a feeling that I need to find my own feet again. Who was I before I had my beloved family before I became Mum and left the old world behind?

 We’ve already established that there’s no going back and so this is the time to rediscover ourselves, remember who we are, what we’re good at, what we’ve achieved and what skills we’ve picked up and mastered along the way. We can then write our own “Job description of Me” and plan our own new exciting times.

So, I’m excited about the prospect of changing times and rediscovery and I’m also starting to realise that my nest will never really be empty, my status as Mum will always be the same, it’s just the role that’s changed. When the boys take flight they will always remember where the safety and support of the nest is and you never know I might also even achieve a tidy one too!!

Have a great Mothers Day!