"Back to baby school - can training to be a mother prepare you for the real thing?"
It struck me that I simply hadn't been worried enough! I re-married at 28, and had three children in rapid sucession. I had had no experience of looking after babies at all - having been the "mistake" of much older parents!
But Patricia Carswell, a professional coach specialising in motherhood has set up a new course exploring the effect that motherhood has on a woman's sense of identity.
Can anyone say that having children affected them in this way? After reading the article, I felt rather relieved that I hadn't suffered from all the anxieties this expert was describing. Admittedly, my children were wonderfully healthy, slept all night, ate all sorts of food, and, as I was armed only with the M & S Book of Baby Care, I didn't notice many of the traditional ailments (teething, colic) that babies are suppose to have.
Therefore I felt perfectly adequate as a mother!

But there was a slight "inadequacy" problem. It was other mothers! When queueing, at toddler group/playschool and eventually school, I found that other mothers upstaged each other relentlessly. I was no good at competitive motherhood. Some mothers wouldn't speak to me because I was "too posh", others because I wasn't posh enough, others again because I didn't look right. Eventually I found some friends, but found the non-speakers difficult.

So! should women train for motherhood, articulate our uncertainties, consider emotional issues in advance, express concern about changing body image and worry about what style of parenting to adopt?
Munch