I do like words that have several meanings for me. As I sat down to write this week’s post, I was still unsure what I would write about.
Would I talk about how short life is, how precious and brief? How we should make the most of every minute?
Would I consider how fast my children are growing, how brief each new, exciting, wonderful stage in their lives is?
Would I have a mini rant about design briefs and clients and people changing their minds every five minutes?!
I could write about each of these things, and perhaps I will soon. But for me, as I sit here with thoughts swirling in my head, the word brief most strongly conjures images of developing ideas; working through issues and challenges to define the best solution to a given problem, the Brief, in order to move forward.
My working life was defined by the Brief. Every decision made referred back to it. Every change checked and assessed for it’s impact on the original Brief. Every argument originating from whether a solution met the Brief or not!
My job as an engineer was to meet the Brief.
My job as a Project Manager was to enforce the Brief.
My job as a mother, well…
For a long time after I made the decision to give up my job and become a stay at home mum I found it difficult to decide who I was, what I did, where I was going.
But then I realised that many of the skills I used daily in my career could be redefined in my role as a stay at home mum. I still manage projects, albeit craft ones. I still organise meetings, albeit coffees and play dates. I still communicate and analyse; I problem solve and develop solutions; I manage and guide; I create and I design.
My job as a mother is to define the Brief.
For me now, the Brief is about making the most of our days, our time together as a family. It is about deciding on our priorities. It is about ensuring that we have fun and learn and make fabulous memories; that we achieve all that we wish to; that we have the lives we deserve; that we are happy.
It’s about defining the path that we want our lives to take and being with the people that we wish to have alongside us on that path.
You can find this weeks #ThePrompt linky here. I do hope this topic inspired you; I look forward to reading your posts.
I love this, especially that last line.
I wish I had a brief to follow, it would make motherhood so much easier!
Enjoy New york btw :-D
Another fab post hon! Motherhood is so all about the brief :-) I quite enjoy making it up though, I’ve always been rubbish at following instructions xx
I like this definition of motherhood – it makes total sense. Although it’s a bit terrifying to have such control over something so important it’s also quite freeing. Great prompt this week – as ever. xx
Love this post – that’s a great brief for motherhood. I love the fact that this week’s word has multiple meanings too :-)
Reading your first couple of lines you could almost have read my mind on how I was going to approach this prompt!! I feel slightly predictable :-) ! I like your approach too – we *do* have to create a brief as mothers, and there are so many workplace skills involved in being a stay at home mum and running a household. More mums should value what they do in this way! X #theprompt
A lovely post. I also enjoy playing with words that have several meanings. I love your final line. Life is about taking responsibility for the things we are able to have control over. x
You’ve chosen the perfect brief for leading a happy life! It’s interesting how a word changes meaning as we progress through life. At one time, it meant the client’s brief for me. Now, I think about how brief each stage of my son’s growth is!
You are so right – our job as parents is to define the brief. Thanks for a great prompt this week, I too love words with different meanings.
I’ve never thought of motherhood this way before (I have more of a scattershot throw-everything-at-it-and-hope-something-sticks method). It sounds like it helps with the eternal battle of finding ourselves under all the pompoms and raisins and nappies. Not sure my work skills of turning it off and on again will help too much ;-). Great post. X
I love this take on the prompt, “my job as a mother is to define the brief” brilliant.
Brilliant post. Totally right too, no matter what you used to do there’s always some part of what you learned that can be used in your role as a mother. There are many skills we learn and using them to teach our children is probably the best use for them. :)