Keily's Blog: Mini eggs and Glue

Last Monday I returned from my first overseas business trip since my daughter was born, feeling rather proud of myself and my family. I was proud of myself (for going and enjoying the trip), proud of my husband (for being super-Dad while I was away) and proud of my daughter (for dealing far too well with Mummy’s absence). I was basking in the glow of familial reunion until I read an email from my daughter’s Nursery regarding the week ahead; the Nursery was running a homemade Easter bonnet competition on Thursday.

Now, the idea of an Easter bonnet competition is lovely. It would have been lovely to spend a day with my daughter sticking Easter paraphernalia to a gaudy coloured hat while trying to prevent glue ingestion. It would have been lovely to have a picture of my little girl with her homemade bonnet on the way to Nursery. It would have been lovely to have more than four (working) days’ notice. But even with the aid of a glue gun, an Amazon Prime account and a willing au-pair, I do not have the time to rustle up a decent bonnet with four days’ notice and without unnecessary stress. Before I received the email from Nursery, I was pleased with my efforts to balance family and work commitments. After reading that email, I had the fleeting and irrational thought that failure to make an Easter bonnet would make me an inadequate and neglectful mother and that my daughter would suffer irreparable emotional damage if she was the only child at Nursery without an Easter bonnet.

The reality is that my daughter is 14 months old and has no idea what an Easter bonnet is.  Attending Nursery without a bonnet was therefore unlikely to cause long term psychological damage. Despite acknowledging this, the feeling that I would be letting her down, by not making her the perfect bonnet, was damaging to me. A bonnet should never have such significance. Nonetheless, Tuesday night was spent in a tired frenzy of mini eggs and glue.  If only all of my parenting doubts could be so easily remedied.