I am delighted to introduce you to Sharon who blogs over at After The Playground for our very first Behind the Lens feature.

Sharon has three daughters and blogs about the ups and downs of parenting older children as well as finding her own feet in the next stage of motherhood.

Here is the photo she has chosen to share and the story behind it.

This is a photo of my three daughters on a beach which, in itself, is not unusual. We have had some of our happiest moments as a family on beaches and I have countless snaps of the three of them staring out to sea or sat on jetties and piers. This visit was a little different.

The photo was taken the weekend before my eldest daughter left to live in halls of residence at university. It was quite a strange weekend and one that was filled with anxiety and emotion. When I was taking this picture I was really worried that it would be the last that I would ever take of my three girls together on a beach. I was anxious that my family, as I knew it, was going to cease to exist. This was terrifying! I think they sensed what was going on and didn’t actually want to pose for it at all but they humoured me.

The three of them are looking out to the horizon which is significant because that is what we were doing at the time. Staring into the unknown and navigating a new horizon. Would it be stormy? Would it be calm? Wound we sink? It looks like a sweet picture of three girls on a beach but that hides a lot of the underlying tension. The person who took it (i.e. me!) was feeling very vulnerable and bit wobbly.

The good news is that, several months later, the girls are still very close and we have managed to find a way of maintaining our strong family bond even though we don’t always live under the same roof! I’m feeling a lot more positive about what it means to be a Mum when your kids get older and even starting to enjoy the fact that we have managed to produce such an independent and self-sufficient human being!

I think the point I really want to make is that if you invest enough effort in forming a strong family bond when your kids are small, they may sail off to that horizon but they’ll always return to your harbour!

You can find Sharon online:
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Thank you, Sharon for sharing this photo with us. Although my boys are still young I can imagine how anxious you must have been. I think us parents we will always worry about our children. It’s lovely to hear that you are all still as close as ever.

Do you want to take part in the Behind the Lens series?

If you would like to take part in this guest series and would like some further information please drop me an email.

Posts will be scheduled on a first come first served basis and will run every Wednesday. All posts will be shared and promoted across my social media accounts (tagging you where possible).

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