While some young girls spend their childhood dreaming of growing up and starting a family, that wasn’t necessarily the case for one local mother of five.
Eve Rogers told BarrieToday that she never really put too much thought into whether or not she’d have kids one day, but said that all changed when she met her husband 15 years ago shortly after graduating from law school in Australia — and not long before she was set to return to Canada.
“I guess I never really imagined what it would be like. I didn’t pine away or imagine how many kids I was going to have, but when I met my husband, I knew that we would have a family," she said.
The couple married in 2009 and now have five children between the ages of five and 11 — including twins.
While having a big family doesn’t come without its challenges, Rogers told BarrieToday the best thing is the feeling of “love multiplying."
“Each living, breathing soul has their own world to bring love to the family and joy and talents. … The flip side is they’re (also) bringing their challenges, sadness and their individual needs to the family too. It’s a give and take," she said.
Rogers admits being a mom has changed her life in every way possible.
“I think the biggest thing is moving away from a life that centres around your own goals and needs being met and shifting your focus to caring for another living, breathing soul who looks at you as their whole world,” she said. “It changed my life. … I dress differently, I eat differently, I sleep differently. There’s just no part of my life that hasn’t been changed.”
Another big change, Rogers added, was making the decision to put her successful law career on hold after the birth of her third child.
“Motherhood has so many sacrifices in it personally, and then when you (often) add to that sacrificing what you went to school for for a period of time for the greater good. Some women are able to do that within the year of maternity leave and for us, once we had three, we knew our hands were full and somebody needed to be present,” she said.
Rogers chose to step away from the stress and chaos of her law practice to focus on being at home while also working on a home-based business which would allow her to be 100 per cent present in her children’s lives.
“I don’t regret that at all. It was a great way to still challenge myself, bring in an income, and be present to the people I wanted to be present to — which was my kids and my husband.”
Along with the many sacrifices that come with being a parent, there are also many joys, she said, adding the biggest joy for her has been watching her children and witnessing the sweet moments between them.
“They have each other's backs and they’re forming bonds I’d like to see last into their adulthood,” she said. “It’s so wonderful to know that as a mother… that you are their whole world. When you kiss your child to sleep they are putting their trust in you for everything.
“It’s an enormous responsibility and it’s heavy at times, but it’s also such a privilege to know that the way the universe has worked out is that this little person is looking to you for everything. It doesn’t matter how ugly you think you are. If you think you’re a bad mother or if you think you’re failing at life… the one little person looks at you and thinks you are the hero in their story.”
