Your mom

[Incognitus]

Happy Mother's Day to any mothers or (expecting mothers) out there in TFF land.

What was the one thing your mother (or mother-figure) taught you that you still take to heart? What wisdom did she pass on to you that you still hold dear?

[Unknown Entity]

How varrry daare ye.

My mum let me develop somewhat alone. She'd give me the direction I needed to go in, but let me pick the pace and allowed me to choose how I approached each obstacle. Most of the decisions I made, were made by myself, and she fully supported me through them. When I was feeling hopeless, she'd give me a nudge and some encouragement so that I'd not give up. She also raises me and my brother to respect other people, no matter what gender, race, skin colour, belief or orientation.

Ultimately, I love and respect her for the things she's done and given up as a (once) single parent. When I was small, she sacrificed her time with us to take up two jobs - she used to do a night job in telesales, as well as some other awful civil servent job in the day. Just to keep a roof over our heads, food in our stomachs and clothes in our backs. Things got easier when she got a new job, and we got older, but we've just about lived comfortably our whole lives because she WORKED her ass off through a brief homeless period, two pregnancies, looking after my grandmother, a stressful job, three relationships, a car accident which lead to years of back problems... And she still works hard to this day.

I'm especially proud of her at the moment for her weight loss and cycling achievements. She cycled from London to Brighton and London to South-End last year, over a hundred miles in both events for the British Heart Foundation. She plans on doing both this year too, and I've been going with her when she trains the last few weekends. I hope to maybe do it with her and my step-dad next year! ^^

And I'm ashamed to admit that sometimes I take her for granted, but never intentionally.

Happy Mothers Day to everyone it applies to!