Finding out your mum isn't supermum after all

When I found out that I was expecting a child almost seven years ago, I turned to the one person I believed knew absolutely everything about child-rearing: my mum.

The woman was a superhero in my eyes. Rearing three children single-handedly after my dad passed away wasn’t an easy job, but my God, she made it look that way.

Holding down a full-time job, tending to her children’s day-to-day needs and still managing to find quality time with each child every day elevated her to the realm of the divine in my eyes.

She could do no wrong in this department and I dared anyone to question it.

And yet, when I gave birth to Ella, I found myself questioning my mother’s approach to parenting and there was no doubt she questioned mine.

Mila Kunis, her of the impossible beauty, recently revealed her mother’s incredulity at the existence of disposable nappies. Her cute anecdote resonated with me on a number of levels.

It reminded me of the moment my mother clapped eyes on the baby monitor nestled on a shelf in my living room. Never backward in coming forward, my mum wondered how lazy you must be to not take thirty seconds to check on your child throughout the day.

Was I being lazy? Here was I thinking I was being over-protective. The fact that a baby monitor had a home in almost every room in the house comforted me, but her reaction to the device made me question whether I was too selfish to have a child in the first place.

Was she right? Was I just fitting the newly-arrived Ella in around my normal routine when I should be sitting by her crib holding my breath in case she suddenly started holding hers?

As Ella grew, me and mum differed over a number of things when it came to my daughter. I made use of every new-fangled invention guaranteed to make life easier for a terrified new mum like me while my mum favoured the hands-on approach.

While I might I have Ella gurgling happily in a doorway bouncer, my mum would be waltzing through the hall with her.

While I had scheduled meal-times for my little girl, my mum saw nothing wrong with feeding her from her lap long past her final meal of the day.

I rarely said anything because if anyone knows how wonderful a mum that woman is, it’s me.

But still, I longed to tell her that times had changed.

Yes we were both working mums, but while her 10 to 3 position meant I never wanted for anything as a child, my job, unlike hers, doesn’t finish once I leave the office.

We have Bill Gates and Steve Jobs  to thank for that one.

Mila’s mum declared that she’d have had a much bigger brood had she known the wonders of disposable nappies when she was elbow-deep in cloth ones, but is that really the case?

Despite all the supposed help, gadgets and inventions available to new mothers, we’re still just getting by, exactly like our mums did.

For every supposed aid we have at our disposal, we face a struggle our mums didn’t.

I mean, baby monitors are amazing, but did my mum have to frantically search through the junk drawer at 3am looking for batteries when she was rearing me?

No, she didn’t.