Well, it's finally happened to me. I always said if this day ever came I would have truly flipped! In my twenties and thirties, while others of my age were settling down and figuring out what family life was all about, I was working and partying my days away.
As anyone who knows me well will agree, I have never been the most domesticated person. What's more I have never yearned to be. I have always felt that life is too short for housework, baking and even parenting! I saw these things as too mundane, ordinary, and restricting and that terrified me.
So it's ironic now, that even though I came to parenthood late, I find that it is not only the best thing that ever happened to me but I love the way of life!
I admit that I actually get satisfaction from doing housework now. But hey, those who know me needn't worry too much. It's not that fulfilling that I will spend time doing it when something more interesting presents itself! I am still liable to drop everything and worry about it later. Life is still too short to do too much housework! And the older I get the shorter it gets so alternative activities get priority!
The best bit of it all though is sharing time with my four year old son. We do lots of fun things together and I love reliving my childhood with him. He has been pestering me for a while now to bake some cookies and cupcakes or biscuits and fairy cakes as we call them here in Ireland. I have been putting it off for ages because baking is something I never enjoyed as a child and hated even more in domestic science at school. My mother used to get annoyed at the mess and say I had more on the floor than in the bowl. My teacher was an old nun who was very strict and unmotivating. Actually to say I hated baking and cooking is really an understatement.
I have wonderful sisters in laws and a mother in law that can bake anything. I also have a friend who can do the same. They always put me to shame because they bake their kid’s birthday cakes and all the things that go with it. I go to the shop for everything, birthday cake, cupcakes, biscuits, the lot!
However, last week, while out with my cousins, I spotted a cute baking kit and decided to buy it for my little boy. I knew he would love it since he has been pestering me for ages and I thought buying it might finally egg me on. And what do you know, it did. It actually did! I had had conversations with various friends about the fun they have baking with their kids but put it out of my mind. Yet yesterday I found myself in the baking aisle of the supermarket perusing all the things we would need.
Today, my little boy and I made our first batch of cookies and our first batch of fairy/queenie/cupcakes and we couldn't be more thrilled! True, the cupcakes are a little pathetic since some of them haven't risen but hey, it's a first attempt! The cookies are not too bad considering we forgot to add vanilla essence and they could probably do with being sweeter. They do look cute though, cut out into shapes of little men, women and elephants. I really must do something about getting some cat cookie cutters. Now that would please us even more since we are both cat crazy!
I have started to bake. I have started to bake. I have started to bake. I have to keep repeating that as it seems so incredible to me! And even more uncharacteristically, I think I might even have the baking bug. I can't wait to try making banana bread and carrot cake next. Gosh, is that me saying that? It can't be, can it? But, it is..........I am now a fully-fledged domesticated parent. It has finally and unbelievably happened to me! Just have to figure out how to finally put the icing on the cake!
