Remembering

Happy ANZAC Day. It's a day that represents a lot of different things to me. I have a lot of memories of ANZAC Day from different stages of my life. It's a day off. It's the birthday of an old boyfriend. It's crazy fun 2up day at the pub!... But for me, these meanings are things of the past. Now, it's what it should always be - a day where we stop and reflect on what the courageous men at Gallipoli sacrificed to ensure our futures. And it's this sentiment I'm determined to impart to my boys. It makes me happy to see so many younger people making the trip to Turkey, being touched by the events that took place there almost 100 years ago. It's a tribute to hope that we've remained true to our promise to never forget those men.

We got up early this morning and watched the service on tv, went out to the garden and picked a bunch of rosemary for a vase in our kitchen, lit a candle that burned all day and talked about what ANZAC Day means. 

Without being too graphic about it all we're pretty honest with our little guys about what happened there that day. And going to Gallipoli for the dawn service is high on my bucket list. Sometimes I question how honest I am with them about the nastier things that go on in the world, but at the end of the day I guess that's who I am. I'm an honest girl who doesn't pull any punches about the way things are and it goes against my nature to soften the truth. Hopefully it's not a bad thing to raise them this way.

I had no idea that parenting would be so hard. Apart from the obvious "work" angle of being a mother (ie balancing a career with the nuts and bolts of caring for kids, housework etc), I never really thought all that much about this kind of stuff - how I would tell them about war and politics while still remembering that they are only 5 and 3 years old! How do you deal with big questions with your kids? Do you tell them like it is? Or do you try to preserve their innocence? I hope I find a happy medium between the two. But I guess I won't really know until down the track when I can see the men they become. I look forward to knowing those men...