Pajamas Don't Matter (Previously posted elseweb) (12/365)

[haggis]

 Finally got around to reading the parenting book that my grandma gave my mum when I was born and my mum gave me just before Zoe was born.  It's called “Pajamas Don't Matter"

There's a message on the first page where my grandma says that she is sending this book  because my mum lives far away so she can't be around to help in person. 

My parents moved from Birmingham to Central Scotland before I was born and in turn, I moved away to Manchester.

I was expecting it to be out of date in tone  or information but it is actually very reassuring and fits really well with the parenting values that I have already.

So that feels like a quiet but deep connection to my mum and her mum, linking us together.

My grandma died a few years ago but the money she left me paid for the final IVF cycles that got us Zoe.

(Just done some calculations and realised that she was 31 when she had her first child (my mum) which was quite late in the 50s so that feels like another connection between us)

And actually, it has made me feel less worried about the next stages, when Zoe will need more from me than food and cuddles so it is definitely doing its job.

I know from talking to my mum directly and from a family friend that my mum struggled with anxiety when we were little so hopefully the book helped her like it's helping me.