Family Moments is about the wonderful experience of connecting as a family.
In this series, we encourage parents to take a look at those truly special family moments. Memories that evoke a feeling of pure joy because they represent quality time with the people we love the most. The realities of modern day life can make these family moments feel out of our reach a lot of the time. Throughout this series, parents take a look at the obstacles that can get in the way of these happy family experiences with a view to making some changes so that life can involve more of them. Today we’re speaking to Grace Mongey.
A little bit about me and my family.
My name is Grace and I am one part of our little family of four. We recently just had our little boy Hayden and we also have a three-year-old daughter, Sienna.
We have had a busy couple of years. Last year we bought a house and got engaged. We had to make a decision about whether to get married or have another baby first and in the end, we decided to try for a baby so that Sienna would have a sibling sooner rather than later. We were very lucky to conceive baby Hayden who was born in May this year. He’s a complete joy and has completed our family. We hope to tie to knot in 2021.
Our favourite way to spend time together is...
I love getting out and about as a family but my favourite times are when we are all at home together. When Chris gets in from work, I instantly feel happier that we are all under one roof together.
When I was younger, we always ate dinner together as a family so that is important for me and my family. I want to continue that tradition. I think it’s great to sit around the table and eat our meals together while we catch up after a long day.
We also love to have movie nights with Sienna. We make a big deal of it and she is always so excited about it.
Our most cherished family moment is...
This one actually just concerns baby Hayden but it’s one that really sticks out in my mind. I am breastfeeding him and we haven’t had the easiest journey so far. I’ve had a lot of different issues and obstacles, even being hospitalised with a bad case of mastitis in those early weeks.
Last week, I was feeding him and he unlatched for a minute and just looked up at me and smiled. For me, it felt like the happiest moment ever. It represented a moment in time where, finally, things were going well in our feeding journey.
It felt so special. I actually said the words “I will never forget this” out loud because I wanted that moment to be a happy memory forever.
The thing that gets in the way of us spending time together is...
House-work 100%. I don’t know why so many of us feel a pressure to have everything perfect all of the time. I often feel like everything has to be done instantly and spend huge amounts of time trying to stay on top of house-work and chores when I could be doing something nice with Sienna, for example.
Our pledge as a family:
Myself and Chris had a really good chat recently about dividing up the housework. I tend to put on a front and pretend everything is OK and that I can manage it all myself, but I can’t.
Chris is amazing and was totally on board with helping more around the house. Just having that conversation was a huge positive because sharing the load will give me (and us) more time to enjoy each other as a family.
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We would like to thank Grace for sharing her special family moments with us. To read more stories just like Grace's, click here.