Celebrate mothering wisdom this Mother’s Day
Posted: 01 May 2023
As a celebration to all the incredible women in our lives, who nurture and inspire and pass their learnings down to the next generation, we took a trip to Melbourne and met three beautiful groups of women who shared a little bit more about their journey to motherhood. Read on to meet these fabulous souls. We had the joy to work with the talented and incredible @jessica_prescott_ who captured these women in their homes.
Meet Raffi
We arrived at Raffi’s mum’s home to meet four generations of women. Her grandmother lives there too, and Raffi was visiting with her sweet one year old daughter. We shot these women with our Natural Flat Sheet as a backdrop and snapped some candid shots with ease.
Q: What is the greatest gift of being a mother?
A: I’ve spent my life hanging out with kids, I started babysitting at 13 and went on to be a childcare educator and then kindy teacher so I’ve always loved just spending time with children and I’ve found the biggest gift to be just doing the mundane with them like having a bath or sitting around in the grass. I genuinely enjoy their company and they are still young enough to want mine.
Q: What is the greatest challenge of being a mother?
A: Oh god…you just have no idea who you’re going to be or how you’re going to respond and finding out how I responded was pretty confronting. The total loss of autonomy, the sleeplessness, the loss of friendships. I imagined I was so equipped to put a baby to sleep or soothe an upset child because it had been my job for a decade before I had a baby but I was doing it on 8 hours sleep and after parents had learnt so much about their babies and what they needed and came to me at childcare and Kindergarten with a full picture of how to comfort their child or support them to sleep etc. I was doing it with other educators and with a lunch break. So caring for a baby after cluster feeding and doing it alone relentlessly 24 hours a day forever was challenging. I was so lucky to have so many mums around me who could say to me ‘yeah it’s absolutely fucked up’ and that was what I needed.
Q: What advice did your mother share with you, that you'll also pass down to your children?
A: Super simple but my mum lived by never letting us go to sleep angry. She would wake you up if you had and sit on the bed and say we need to find a resolution. She taught me two things with that- that carrying that anger was really unhealthy for you and not a way to be restful for the night and also that resolution meant that we find something that works for all of us and you didn’t always walk away with the outcome you wanted but you did walk away understanding where the other person was coming from and why.
Meet Yahna and her daughter Sunday
Meeting Yahna is like greeting a giant ball of wonderful wild energy. We had the joy of meeting her and her adorable daughter where we shot them against our Clay Flat Sheet and over the hours we spent chatted on all matter of topics while learning about her incredible women’s health business Radiant Birth.
Q: What is the greatest gift of being a mother?
A: I am originally from South Korea, a country that still struggles with extreme class disparity and poverty. Soon after birth, my biological mother gave me up for adoption to an Australian family where there is much opportunity and privilege. In this process, I was bestowed a family that had the means to provide me with a home, warm jimmy jams, hot dinners and bedtime stories. I could go to school, to ballet lessons, learn how to read and write and create art with parents that loved me like their own.
Then in adulthood, I had the privilege of falling in love, and creating a baby and building a family of my own.
Being a mother is and will always be my most significant achievement in life. The weight of being a mother is very real, and no day goes by when I don’t feel grateful for this opportunity. Privilege and motherhood feel synonymous and the privilege of loving something that is your own, from your womb and has grown with you and next to you feels so deeply full and satisfying.
Q: What is the greatest challenge of being a mother?
A: Challenges come up daily in motherhood and it’s fraught with trigger points and pitfalls. When I first became a mother, I thought, once I get to the stage where she can communicate clearly, things will become easier, but it is simply not the case. So now I try and sit uncomfortably in the challenges and view parenting with a long-term lens. Like how will I manage to work and keep building my business during school terms where 12 weeks of a year are not accounted for childcare?
Or tell her “she will love like that again”, whilst holding her wet shining face after some loser breaks her heart. Each season is so special and the challenges help me to uncoil new parts of myself with her. We are growing in the challenge as a family every day.
Q: What advice did your mother share with you, that you'll also pass down to your children?
A: I don’t think it’s advice as in words, just a feeling. To ensure she feels safe, loved, warm, heard, seen and valued. Anything is possible and your potential is infinite. There is a gleaming light within all of us. The switch is there, ready to be turned on - you just have to find it.
Meet Claire & Hannah
Tucked away in a cosy suburban street not too far from where our own Creative Director Lauren grew up as a child we met Claire and Hannah who raise their two daughters - on the day we met the gorgeous Marigold. We also were thrilled to have both of their mums, Jo and Angela to join to capture the three generations of women celebrating their interconnection.
Q: What is the greatest gift of being a mother?
A: For me I think it was the sense of purpose motherhood provided, alongside the deep and unconditional love I feel for my children and the absolute joy I get watching them grow, change and learn each and every day.
Q: What is the greatest challenge of being a mother?
A: Gosh, there are so many challenges motherhood throws at you. Sleep deprivation has been a big one for me in this current season. The exhaustion down to your core, that makes you feel so self critical of your own mothering. I also think navigating the balance between tending to your children’s needs and whilst also tending to your own is really tough.
Q: What advice did your mother share with you, that you'll also pass down to your children?
A: During those moments of complete exhaustion, my mother reminds me that the most important thing is rest and being present for my kids, the other stuff can wait. No one else notices that the laundry is piling up, or the floors haven’t been vacuumed as much as I do, and it’s okay to just let things be messy.
Campaign shot on film and digital
by photographer, doula, author and business owner @jessica_prescott_
