An evening with Dawn French and the P&G Olympic Mums

Yesterday started out as a pretty average day; cleaning the house, feeding the children, changing nappies and doing the shopping. But at 3pm instead of taking the children to the park or playing games in the playroom I dropped them off at their Nanny and Grandads before making my way to London to spend an evening with Dawn French and the very proud Mums of the P&G Olympic Ambassadors.

The evening was presented by Dawn French, a favourite face from my childhood, a proud Mum herself. Dawn narrates and features in the P&G Proud Sponsors of Mums adverts and I can’t think of anyone better. Dawn echoed the words of many a Mum “a Mum will do anything for her kids” and said that when she became a Mum, she in turn sought the help and support of other Mums including her good friend and partner in comedy Jennifer Saunders.

In November last year P&G proudly announced the British Athletes who are set to compete in the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games as being ambassadors for a range of their products. The Ambassadors include Paula Radcliffe, Ben Rushgrove, Sir Chris Hoy, Jeanette Kwakye, Keri-Anne Payne, Liam Tancock, Victoria Pendleton, Sophia Warner, Jessica Ennis, Jenna Randall and Mark Cavendish. Last night I was privileged to be invited to attend a small gathering for a private screening of a series of short documentaries telling the stories of our British athlete hopefuls through the eyes of their Mums.

As a Mum myself I felt very moved by their stories, even at only 1, 3 and 10 I feel incredibly proud of my children and their achievements, so I can only begin to imagine how it must feel to have a child who will be representing their country on home soil. The Olympic Mums were all incredibly ‘normal’, not that I expected them to be anything different. They all agreed wholeheartedly that they do not like to be referred to as having made ‘sacrifices’ for their sporting children, they have merely done as any Mum would do, they have adjusted their lives to accommodate their child’s passions. Perhaps before becoming a parent myself I wouldn’t have understood. I used to watch parents stood on the sidelines at sporting events thinking “I bet they get sick of standing there week in, week out, I wouldn’t do that” but now I know I would. As a parent you want to make your children happy, you want to support them on whatever path they choose and to be the best that they can be. My children are not Olympians (yet!) but I know that I will always have one thing in common with those Olympic Mums this evening, I will always be there for my children – it’s what being a Mum is all about and I am very proud to be a Mum.