Momcafe

Raising a family and being a writer come with their own challenges and rewards. While it would seem that being a mum would make it more difficult to be a writer, I believe that it is through parenthood I really found my voice as an artist. When my children were babies, my writing was confined to notebooks in which I hastily scribbled during nap time (if I were lucky enough to get all three to sleep at the same time). Somehow I managed to write a novel and three sequels using this method. But it was not until our last child entered kindergarten that I was finally able to type up the manuscripts and begin to work on them. Having only a small window in the day to write was great because I knew I had to get right down to it—procrastination was not in the cards. Cooking, cleaning, laundry and gardening took up the rest of whatever available time I had, after having fun with the kids.

I still didn’t have the luxury of a room of my own in which to write. That would come much later, once the basement was transformed from a dungeon to habitable space.
The computer, when we finally bought one, was positioned in the firing line between the living room and the family room. If I was going to continue writing I had to literally do it in the bosom of my family. By this time the kids were older and now in school. The days of nappies, disrupted sleep, feedings, teethings and toilet training were all behind me. But each stage of our children’s lives comes with its own set of demands. To cook, gardener and cleaner was added chauffeur and homework helper. My trio was interested in what mum was doing at the computer, so I started reading everyone a chapter each time I finished, to choruses of more and more. The keyboard steamed as the plot sizzled. I was on a roll and churned out chapter after chapter.

Then I arrived at that blissful state of a room of my own. The relative peace and quiet is perfect for revision, but I find I don’t write quite with the same sizzling speed as I once did when surrounded by all the distractions of family life. Time has a way of filling a vacuum. Our children are grown up now –one is studying abroad, one is a student in another province, while the third is a soldier. One thing hasn’t changed though—they still love to read my creations. So maybe it was just as well that my writing was such a public thing when they were small.

Being a parent demands everything one has to give and more, just as do my artistic endeavors. Motherhood has truly been the crucible for my writing and enabled me to fulfill my dream of becoming a published author of “The Golden Crusader.”