Ireland AM's Laura Woods is mum to Ben (4) and Alex (2). She manages a hectic broadcasting schedule and is also director of CorporateProfiles with fellow presenter, Brian Ormond.
If I've learned one thing about myself since becoming a mother it's.... how organised I could become!
My parents taught me three valuable lessons about being a parent; they are...
That a child can never have too much love and cuddles and affection.
Never to trivialise any of the things that are troubling them though it may seem small to us. Never to fob them off, take the time to listen to their issues and to be empathetic.
My mother instilled in me that children like boundaries. It's very import to pull them up on things if they are misbehaving and not to spoil them. They like rules and structure. It's okay to say no. Or for reasons of sanity and quiet say "Yes!" and then regret it when they're wired on sugar!
We do a treat day because it makes grocery shopping so much easier. When they pick something up, I can say "yes that's for treat day" as opposed to them screaming in the supermarket because they can't have something. Though they may not know when treat day is coming! It might only come once a month or twice a week if there's events on. It certainly works in our family to keep the sugar intake in check.
The main thing that's changed between myself and my partner since becoming parents is... energy levels.
I don't know what we did with our time to be honest, I suppose we slept. The days can be very long when you're up at half five or six. When the second baby came along we felt old for our age though we weren't! When friends have babies and ask "will it get better?" I always tell them, "look, it will get easier because you'll become more accustomed to it. You'll be more able to manage it".
Babies still don't necessarily sleep well into toddler years as mine are prime examples of. With Ireland AM I'm up at 4.15am to be in for 5 am but sure I'm up anyway. You just have to work away at it and know that once they hit their teenage years they probably won't come out of their room. And then we can catch up on 15 years sleep!
The most surprising thing about parenthood is... how instinctive so much of it is. How strong my intuition has become. The first time around I read all the books and got all the advice. I'm much more trusting of my own intuition now, and that has filtered into my other relationships too. We forget to listen to our intuition. I've found as a mum that my instinct has served me well.
If my children have taught me anything about life it is... so so much.
My priorities have totally shifted, while career is still so important to me it is not the whole focus of my week. I really enjoy my job, I'm lucky it has never felt like work. But I enjoy my family time more. The boys taught me empathy, kindness and patience. I would not have been a patient person before I became a mother! But now I would say I'm probably one of the most patient people in the world, waiting for little hands to tie laces has taught me that.
They've taught me about seeing the wonder in the small things in life, going down to the coast in a morning or climbing the big rope in the park all these things have now taken on a new meaning. It's lovely to rediscover your inner child through your own children. I love those afternoon playing with the boys where I find myself with a cape on, running around, pretending to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.
The most important lessons I would like to teach my child are... how important kindness is and how little gestures can mean an awful lot.
We always put huge emphasis on kindness because I think it will serve them well in life. The competitive streak is all well and good and that will hopefully come later because I think it's good to be a little bit competitive in the real world. But to see Ben ask another little boy if he wanted to play a game was very touching, he did it without any prompting from me. It's so important for making friends going through primary school and beyond. It's so important to have friends around you, my husband and I are so lucky in that regard, our friends from school and childhood are still our friends now.
The qualities I most admire in others are... kindness.
I love that quote "be nice to everyone you meet on the way up, you'll meet them again on the way down." Manners, forgiveness and sense of fun and adventure are important too.
My secret talent is... probably swimming. I swam competitively as a child. I remember my husband was pretty shocked when we were dating, and we went swimming in a hotel and I did the butterfly! I still swim for fitness but even more importantly I swim for piece of mind. It's very therapeutic. I could just do lengths and lengths and lengths. It quiets my mind completely.
The last thing I think about at night before I go to sleep is... have I locked the backdoor???
I'd love to say that it's something a bit more philosophical and sentimental about how wonderful life is but that usually comes to me throughout the day. Life is pretty good right now. We have two gorgeous healthy boys and my husband and I are very happy. For me last thing at night is literally a checklist of what I have to do the next day and have I done everything that I was supposed to do the night before. So it is quite mundane but necessary for the schedule that is our lives at the moment.
Watch Laura on Ireland AM on weekdays 7am-10.45am on TV3.
Laura will be MC at the
Dundrum Town Centre Ladies Day at the Discover Ireland Dublin Horse Show on 6th August.
