Prime
Motherhood permanently changes women
Min Atek
What you need to know:
No one imagined her as a mother, but Bridget brought forth a set of twins, a boy and girl. I always assert that nothing in the world changes the life of any girl or woman like becoming a mother
Bridget, not real name, is the youngest child of her parents, with two older brothers. When we were growing up, she was a reserved and introverted child, who faithfully sucked her index finger into adulthood.
In her late teens and early 20s, she took on a relatively wild lifestyle and quickly became pregnant. No one imagined her as a mother, but Bridget brought forth a set of twins, a boy and girl. I always assert that nothing in the world changes the life of any girl or woman like becoming a mother. The change happens on physical, emotional, spiritual, mental and financial fronts. You are suddenly permanently wired to think of another human being before yourself.
You may deny these realities, but the fact is that you will never be the same person like you were before the child came along. Bridget’s world was changed. She had to quickly grow up from the last born and only daughter to becoming a fully-fledged mother of twins.
In later years, I recall how Bridget always lamented on social media that every time her children returned to boarding school, she would be depressed. She would mourn about missing her children to tears.
Recently, one of local television stations run a story of a mother who stood up on one of the finished highways in Kampala, with a plan to throw her baby down the bridge so he would die. Strangers passing by quickly noticed and rescued the infant. Oh what a scene! I have continued to wonder what manner of circumstances would drive a mother to such a place.
The news has often carried stories of mothers abandoning their children for different causes, sometimes being tired of fighting and quarrelling with the father of the children. I watched a video clip of a mother, who abandoned her two children with her sister. She boldly said before a judge in court after she was sued for child support that she had decided she was not interested in being a mother anymore.
What a defence! The entire court went silent. Do we have liberty as mothers to simply walk away from responsibility? You had the mind to get pregnant on two occasions and bring forth two human beings and then one day you boldly tell the world that you are not interested anymore.
Every parent has a God-given mandate to take care of their children. To abandon the responsibility is to lie to our very selves.
There is no two ways about it and what is most profound is that when you run away, this thing will eventually catch up with you. It might not be today or tomorrow but a day of reckoning surely does come.
