10 Comments
User's avatar
Walyullah's avatar

Wow, this was very poetic! A little funny too with that shooting lasers bit lol. I cannot begin to fathom the profoundly visceral (leaving aside spiritual/emotional/etc) experience motherhood is. Reading about it always makes me say "subhanallah."

May Allah swt bless you, your children, your husband, and all our mothers and fathers.

Expand full comment
Dr. Samaiya Mushtaq's avatar

Ameen, thank you! It is indeed a different life than the one I lived before it.

Expand full comment
Ali Bokhari's avatar

Very touching.Expresses a mother's right to her child.Mothethood tends to be forgotten.A woman on this earth is a living example of supreme sharing and sacrifice.A child in Urdu is Mera Jigar Ka tukra.

Expand full comment
Dr. Samaiya Mushtaq's avatar

Thank you :) it’s a phrase I’ve shared w my husband before (he doesn’t speak Urdu)

Expand full comment
Amal Shakeb's avatar

Motherhood is indeed a journey where you become a nurturer and these little creatures just take over your world.

Expand full comment
Dr. Samaiya Mushtaq's avatar

It was a whole different world before them!

Expand full comment
Amanda Coreishy's avatar

Such a beautiful reflection, culminating in that last paragraph. My mother is 78 and the sense that ultimately her life-long parenting ends in the ultimate separation was what hit me as I read this. She still fusses over us, sending texts and emails loaded with advice. My eldest turned 22 this week and started training on what we hope will be his first job. Being a parent is exactly as you describe: purposeful intimacy and nurturing and then healthy separation. And there's no fixed rigid manual for the time frames either.

Expand full comment
Dr. Samaiya Mushtaq's avatar

Oh Amanda I hope you have many more years with your mother! I have felt that too with my parents as they get older. And I hope your first baby thrives in this new milestone!

Expand full comment
Amanda Coreishy's avatar

Thank you, Samaiya. As a friend of mine used to say, ‘I receive that.’

Expand full comment
Tamil's avatar

Beautifully expressed!! I love keeping some if the stuff to ourselves as parents!! 💗

Expand full comment