Kidspot Ford Territory Top 50: Passenger

This post is the first of our blog challenges to win the Kidspot Top 50 Bloggers competition. We have been asked to write the following post: “If you could have any passenger (famous, non-famous, dead or alive) sitting beside you for a road trip, who would you pick and why?”


Right now, if I could have just one person on a road trip with me in my fancy new car there’s no doubts about who that would be. My girl, my big girl Daisy.

Except that I would like it to be the 34 year old version of her. The same age as me today. We’d fast forward through time, grab a coffee and a packet of snakes {some things never go out of fashion}, I’d ask her to hop into the front seat {for a change!} and off we’d go. We would chat, and we’d have to be heading somewhere a few hours away because there’s lots to talk about and catch up on and I’m pretty sure I would do all the talking because there is so much I want to tell her and ask her.

I might say something like this…

Daisy. Look at you, all grown up and beautiful! Just as beautiful as the very first day I met you when you cried real tears while you were still inside me and being pushed into the big, bad world. I didn’t think it possible that babies cried real tears, but you did, emotional from the moment we laid eyes on each other. From that moment on I knew what being a mother finally was – an aching love and desire to make things better for you, to protect you, wanting only the very best for you. I cried to my own mother a few days later as I finally understood what she only ever wanted for me. Her baby. I cried for all the pain I had put her through, the worries, the joys. I just got it. One day you might be lucky enough to get it to.

How do you spend your days? Are you working, are you mother? I am so proud of you and all your achievements. All of them – big and small. You just being you makes me proud – it’s one of those silly parts of being a parent.

I can see a strong minded and strong willed woman before me. Not much has changed. You are smart and successful in your own right. Are you kind and loved and love others? Good. That’s all that matters. I hope you still know that you don’t need anyone else to make you happy. A good man (or woman) beside you can certainly make things brighter and wonderful, but at the end of the day if you can’t be happy and content with yourself, you’re not much good to anyone else. You still know that right? Good.  I hope you are well looked after and accepted for who you are. I hope you know your own skin, know your needs and get them met. I hope you love the woman that looks back at you in the mirror each day. Do you? Good. I hope you put others needs before your own and I hope that you never accept anything other than the very best for yourself. You deserve it. You just do.

Don’t you love that all the stuff that you thought really important doesn’t really matter at all? You’ll continue to learn this, the older that you get, the more comfortable you get in your own skin and style. Teenage boys didn’t matter. Being popular didn’t matter. Being good at sport didn’t really matter (unless you are a professional?!). How your hair is, or what clothes you wear didn’t matter did it? See? Told you so. Maybe I should take some of my own advice and realise that having a kid in bed with us most night’s doesn’t really matter. Actually…while you are here, can I ask if your sister sleeps in a bed by herself now..?! Phew. Thought so.

I’m still figuring stuff out myself, being 34, and I’m sure you are still working them out too. I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, and that’s OK because we’re not yet are we? There’s still plenty of time for us to change our minds and reinvent ourselves over and over again. I hope you don’t feel disappointed if you haven’t “made it” yet. I haven’t, but by God I’ll be stuffed if I don’t keep trying to work out what that is. I’m never going to stop trying to be a better person professionally and personally and I hope that you don’t either.

Do you have children? Did you really marry Jack Woog like you said you would? I hope I’m a good Grandma and help you as much as my lovely Mum helped me. Being a Mum is hard right? I hope you appreciate the pure joy you bring me and have bought me every day you have been alive. I think you need to have your own child to know that. You being my daughter has taught me more about myself than I ever even thought possible. About what my limitations are. What frustrates me, what makes me happy. Are you close with your sister? I hope so. I hope you girls know the pure joy that comes from having a sister who is your friend. Who knows everything about you, who loves and adores you unconditionally. That’s what I hope for you both.

Most of all Daisy, I hope you are happy. I hope you’ve known what heart thumping love is like. I hope you’ve known the thrill of achieving something you have worked hard at. I hope you’ve travelled and seen the world. Drunk a strong coffee in Paris and eaten some pizza in Italy. I hope you still like your Father and I and have us as part of your world on a regular basis. I hope your heart is at peace when you are in the country but love the pace and opportunity of a big city. I just hope you are happy, within yourself and in the world that you live in because that’s all you’ve ever given me. Happiness. So much happiness.

And off we’d go on our merry way singing loudly to Fleetwood Mac as we always have done. I would hopefully be able to borrow some clothes off her as well…? Oh, my brain hurts from thinking about this time warp possibility….

Comments

  1. I just got all goose-bumpy and teary. I forget that one day they’ll be older.

  2. So very gorgeous Beth. Wouldn’t it be amazing to spend time with your babies all grown up?! I so hope we all do get those times x

  3. Anonymous says

    Beth – I think you have won . What a lovely lovely post . Promise that you will read it to her when shse is 34!!

    Love Emma

  4. That’ll do pig, that’ll do.

  5. Love it Beth! So beautifully written. What lucky girls you have!

  6. I think you just wrote a winning post Beth. Just gorgeous xxx

  7. heidiannafitz says

    Glimpsing what they might be like when all grown up has really resonated with me this last week (it started with a photo of my big boy…)and your beautiful post just topped it off! I love an out loud ‘i wonder … ‘ – you’ve captured the challenge gorgeously! off to weep now … Hx

  8. Bravo

  9. I love this post. Go you good thing!

  10. She’s a lucky girl to have a mum like you. x

  11. Total goosebumps. You are an amazing writer x

  12. Beth… You completely nailed it. You are brilliant, and you so deserve to win. Your girls are blessed to have a mum who has lived long enough to get them and totally adore them. Every daughter wants to feel that from their mum no matter how old they are. I am going to make sure my beautiful daughters aged 27 and 30 read this. You said it all, so, so well!

  13. Defiantly goose bumps and a tear. And I’m not a tear kind of gal! She will love to read that when ahes 34! Imagine reading a letter like that from our mothers. Just beautiful Beth.

  14. Anonymous says

    WINNING.

  15. Beautiful. So so beautiful.
    You have serious talent my love xx

  16. That is SO sweet .. so so sweet (-:

  17. you are a beautiful mumma x

  18. This is so beautiful Beth, I have goose bumps and a massive lump in my throat.
    Fantastic writing, love it!

  19. Lovely Beth, just lovely.

  20. *siff!!* someone pass me the tissues!! oh man. beautiful. xx

  21. Oh Beth, you’ve made me all teary. Such a beautiful post x

  22. Beautiful!

    How very true, but hard to imagine at the moment… “Maybe I should take some of my own advice and realise that having a kid in bed with us most night’s doesn’t really matter.”

    …No it doesn’t matter as they WILL grow out of it!

    All these things we worry about for them as children don’t matter when they are 34! What a thought provoking post… I’m going to write one for my little 5 year old too!

    xx

  23. Oh MAN. This post is so beautiful. You are such an amazing mother and I’m sure Daisy will grow up to be an equally amazing woman too xxx

  24. sniff, sniff, sniff. Do you get all anxious hoping you are around and they are around to enjoy life together in years to come? I do. My baby turns 11 tomorrow, now how did that happen?

  25. Yeah so, this is seriously BEAUTIFUL.

    Beautiful.

    xx

  26. Oh tears! Beyond beautiful xx

  27. Nailed it.
    Abso-freaking-lutely nailed it.

    That post is my favourite and my best.

    Can you smell that pizza by the slice? And that in and out burger? And that smelly yellow taxi?!? I think you’re in new York!

  28. Oh, just love this … my daughter is 15 going on 16. She came out screaming and is still doing so but she is beautiful. And growing up so, so fast. xx

  29. OMG Beth this is just beautiful. All teary here xxx

  30. THis is why you’re in the top 5 m’dear. Beautiful. xx

  31. Such sweet sentiments.
    I must admit that as the mother of a little boy I am sometimes sad that I won’t experience those mother daughter moments like when your little girl becomes a mother herself. I suppose that is a bit selfish of me…I know I will have mother son moments that will be different but just as special. And maybe if I have another baby it will be a girl!
    Beautiful post!

  32. Dude, that was a magic piece of writing. Beautiful insight

    xo em

  33. I often wonder what my 4yr old girl will be like in 30yrs time. I tell her all the time that I hope we’re still best friends then 🙂 She tells me that she’s going to be a builder so she can build a house next door to me, where she’ll live with her husband {who she said will be her Brother….eeeks….hopefully not haa} and we will have coffee everyday. I like that {apart from the marrying her brother bit lol} 🙂
    Awesome post Beth! Awesome!
    x

  34. I luff Fleetwood Mac.

    I wonder endlessly who my (baby) son will marry or love and whether he will be looked after and get to live a life true to his soul and sense of self.

    It worries me that if he gets married at 40 Mr FF would be 90. Which means he might No Longer Be With Us.

    All any of us want for our kids is that they get to be happy and be loved…Fingers and Toes.

    Meanwhile I can’t believe you won a car! ‘Citing.

  35. Just an amazing, beautiful post.
    Thank you for sharing such a wonderful piece of writing.

  36. Such a beautiful post. X

  37. Now that is a true mother/daughter declaration. You’ve summed up the relationship so beautifully here lady. Lucky Daisy. I think you may have cemented yourself in the top 1 with this… and this is only the first of the challenges you say!? xoxo

  38. i read this post last night. i couldn’t comment until this morning. this post is so special, it won’t get out of my head. x

  39. A little bit teary reading this Beth. It’s so beautiful….

  40. Wahhhhh. Now I’m sitting here crying, wondering what Abi will be like at 34…

    Lovely words tied together.

    xx

  41. Beth you made me cry!!! when asked the question of who you would like in the car we often choose a famous person but you took time to ‘stop and smell the roses’ and shared a beautiful moment (in the future) that makes me want to drive the new Ford Territory to have the same experience with my daughter.

    Thank you.

    Enjoy the sunshine.

  42. ClaireP says

    Well done! I loved this post. Really resonated with me. Actually I think I will go and write a letter to my beautiful 4 yo who is growing up into the most beautiful little girl. I love what you captured here.

  43. best ever post from you from a person who never comments but moved too after that one

  44. AMAZING !!! I have no other words! Now that I am a Mum and I too have a daughter, I totally get this !! xx

  45. So very well put! I actually plan to share this with my 13 year old when she gets home from school today. And then share it again when she is 34…and try to help her recall the first time she read it at 13. Everything you say is so true and as she tells me about the “popular group”, not being invited to that sleepover, not needing a bra, getting bumped from her lunchtable and all the other BIG issues on a daily basis, perhaps she’ll believe me just a little bit more when I say “I know this feels huge to you today, but stay true to who you are and everything else will fall into place….as hard as that feels right now.” Thank you for sharing. You have my vote!

  46. This made my heart swell up so big! So many beautiful words.

  47. Wouldn’t it be nice….just to know what they’re going to be like. Part of me wants to enjoy every moment and make sure they don’t miss a step. My other part just wants to be enjoying life like my mum and sharing moments with my children and their families. Really beautifullly written x

  48. This is your best piece of writing ever.

  49. You have really pulled out the big guns for this peace of writing- honest, emotional, beautiful, magical writing.

    Blogging at it’s best

  50. this is really beautiful – you do yourself & your gorgeous daughters proud…now where’s the Kleenex!
    Well done you…
    Jen

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