Birthday Boy!

Dear Campbell,

Today is your tenth birthday. Double digits. You’re growing up so fast I can barely keep up.

Since the day you you were born you have preferred to do your own thing. Marched to the beat of your own drum. The name Campbell means crooked smile this sums you up perfectly.

Birthdays were always a thing of anxiety for you. You never wanted to open presents or play with new toys. You hated having birthday parties and would become hysterical if we tried to sing the birthday song to you.

So we changed the way we did things. There was no fuss. We didn’t wrap your presents and we brought your favourite cake. A Woolworths chocolate mud cake. We had candles but we didn’t sing. We only had our family around for you. Soon birthdays were fun again.

It was weird for us at first because we wanted to celebrate you coming into this world and joining our family. We love you so much and wanted to show you. We did this differently in the end, by respecting your feelings and boundaries and giving you the day you wanted. It is after all your day and not ours.

Year after year you changed and grew. There was a time that you called me your best friend and we used to play all sorts of fun games together. Now you are much older and I’m less cool. You have your own group of unique and wonderful friends to play with. You don’t need your old best friend as much anymore.

Know that I will always be here in the background and although I push you to do things that seem too hard or unfair, it’s because I love you so much and I know you are capable of so many wonderful things.

You are going to go far in life my boy.

happy birthday,

Mum 💙