May you give birth in the manner of your choosing;
And if not, may you avoid forever the acid tongues of those who did.
May your breasts be plentiful and hardy;
And if not, may you avoid forever the acid tongues of those whose are.
May you understand and accept, without reservation, that there is simply no such stage of human development called ‘sleeping through the night’;
And if not, may you avoid forever the acid tongues of those who are delusional on this matter (and bless them, for they are probably sleep deprived).
May you realise that the pram does not maketh the parent;
And in doing so, save approximately $1500.
May you find beauty in the post-partum body, without berating, parading or popular-trading the pinnacle of ‘motherhood’ as a toned, muscle-wrapped body;
And may you never venture to the Instagram accounts of Miranda Kerr or Rebecca Judd.
May you never resort to baby sign language;
For it is mumbo jumbo, I tell you. Mumbo. Jumbo.
May you sleep in whichever configuration works for you, your child, your life, your family;
And may you awaken most mornings at least mildly refreshed, without somebody’s feet in your ribs or wet nappy on your face.
May you realise that you are the most influential person in your child’s life and that it is your everyday actions (not TV, books or popular culture) that will ultimately shape their character;
And may they pick up at least one hilariously bad habit or embarrassing mannerism of yours to serve as a daily reminder.
May you find comedy in toilet training;
For there is tragedy enough in this world without finding it in poo.
May the parenting forums filled with judgmental, ill-informed and badly written ‘conversations’ eventually implode;
And may you have the strength to never go online until such time.
May you forgive yourself quickly for not enjoying ‘every’ little moment;
For it is a scientific fact that kids can be jerks sometimes and enjoying that would be weird.
May you go to bed each night knowing that your love and best efforts are enough, that YOU are enough, and that your child loves you just as you are;
And may you actually get some sleep.
Daughters of Eccentricity 
hahaha so honest and funny….. lol you make me look at motherhood from a much better perspective. You just made my day I just started laughing out in the office 🙂
Yay Amma! So happy to hear 🙂
Oh, I love this! Wish I had read it 6.5 years ago, when I was still delusional/naive/desperate enough to believe those who claimed that the land of sleeping through the night was a real place and that my child and I could go there if only I followed the directions.
Looking forward to reading more! 🙂
Oh I know – the myth! I remember the day I realised that, actually, I don’t even sleep through the night! So much easier to just work around inevitable interrupted nights than strive for unattainable uninterrupted nights 🙂
Love this Amy 🙂