The Brisbane Writers Festival brings the year's best writing into a collective event to question, debate and unpack ideas, identity and imagination.
In its 54th year, the festival shows no sign of slowing, and will give avid book lovers the chance to hear inspiration and influence direct from their favourite writers. Joining the line-up will be Kylie Kaden, author of 'Losing Kate' and 'Missing You'. Here, she pens an open letter about children, and the effect they have on mothers.
“They’re perfect, when they’re born. Ten fingers. Ten toes. Soft, delicious skin, unsullied by the world. They deserve your best. Of course, you’ll give it. You try. Every hour of every day. Watching your heart walk around outside your body. The joys are immense, but so are the challenges. It starts with decision fatigue amidst a haze of sleep deprivation, the erosion of personal time and sense of self, along with the guilt for resenting the facts. It progresses to groundhog days of sticky floors and mindless questions, constantly calibrating the to-do list against the done, always falling short.
You just arrive at the solution, when the problem morphs into another form. Yet these pitfalls are cleverly counterbalanced by the precious, incomparable feeling of sausage arms around your neck, Vegemite toast breath on your cheek, the smell of their hair as they trustingly sleep on your shoulder. The undeniable, priceless joy caught in their infectious Elmo giggle. Your attention for the world-at-large dissolves, and, seemingly, so does your intellect, but at the same time, you uncover a richness to life, a depth of understanding, a compassion you never knew you lacked. Your perspective changes, as if going about each day from an altered height.
You make mistakes, but they love you in spite of them (despite what they shout at you). Children don’t care how you look, what success you’ve had – just how you make them feel. You realise, all too late, that if you were, indeed, perfect, what would that say about your expectation of them? They are the best part of every day. But also the hardest. And you wouldn’t have it any other way.”
You just arrive at the solution, when the problem morphs into another form. Yet these pitfalls are cleverly counterbalanced by the precious, incomparable feeling of sausage arms around your neck, Vegemite toast breath on your cheek, the smell of their hair as they trustingly sleep on your shoulder. The undeniable, priceless joy caught in their infectious Elmo giggle. Your attention for the world-at-large dissolves, and, seemingly, so does your intellect, but at the same time, you uncover a richness to life, a depth of understanding, a compassion you never knew you lacked. Your perspective changes, as if going about each day from an altered height.
You make mistakes, but they love you in spite of them (despite what they shout at you). Children don’t care how you look, what success you’ve had – just how you make them feel. You realise, all too late, that if you were, indeed, perfect, what would that say about your expectation of them? They are the best part of every day. But also the hardest. And you wouldn’t have it any other way.”
- Kylie Kaden
