"I'm just a mum."

In a moving, honest and occasionally tongue-in-cheek poem, poet Antonia Seaward considers what it is to be "Just A Mum."

Antonia Seaward is a spoken word performer and writer based in the Southside of Glasgow. Her words are as pragmatic as they are poignant with a very human tone. When she is not writing at her kitchen table she is looking after her three young girls.

 

Transcript below:

I’m Just a Mum

Hi everyone, I'm Toni & I'm just a mum

I don't have a real job, I'm just a mum

I've got 3 small daughters, so I don't work

I'm just a mum

 

I've got a degree n that, a good one

But I don't do anything with it, 

Cause of the kids, see

So I am actually capable of being a productive member of society

I could be sitting in an office somewhere

Spoonfeeding an executive 

Cause I don't even have to do that for my 1year old, she can feed herself

 

I used to be a PA, babysitting & organising really importantpeople

I'm sure it was quite an important job

Full of important tasks

Although, I can't remember them right now

Baby brain - it never really goes away

 

I'm sure on my first day I was nervous & frightened

Probably not as frightened as that first time, in the hospital 

After the messy bit, the dangerous bit

When everyone left - well everyone except the baby..and me

And the whole world contracted & I was in charge - responsible - not for someone else's schedule - for an actual life

 

Scared, terrified, worried, tired, sore – really, really sore

But then, you know that feeling?

The one you get when you fall in love for the very first time?

The one where you feel you're going to explode just by thinking about them?

The Romeo & Juliet, no one has ever loved anyone the way I love you complete panic attacks just thinking about it, kind of feeling? 

 

Well, when I looked at her, all tiny & helpless & utterly, terrifyingly beautiful 

Well, I knew then, that no matter what I had done until then, from that moment on

I was just a mum.