👟✨ Glitter and Velcro – A Snapshot of Motherhood in Motion

I came across this photo recently, it was taken years ago. We were on our way back to London from St. Albans. Sitting on a train with my eldest son just before we got back into London. I wasn’t thinking much at the time, just trying to get from A to B with a young primary aged child and a million things in my handbag to keep him happy and entertained.

But now? This photograph of our feet stops me. I like to look it in, saved in my favourite photographs folder. 

One sparkly boot. One tiny trainer.

That little foot belongs to my eldest son. All Velcro and cartoon socks, and a habit of kicking the back of the seat in front. My boot? Some would say it’s a bit impractical for travelling around London, and outside of London.  Sure, I see their point of view, but these glitter boots felt right for that day and for my outfit too. I didn’t always wear heels, but I liked to feel put together. A bit of glitz in the everyday.

Heading into central London, me and my boy, back when a day out was an adventure and everything was mega exciting. He was small enough to hold my hand the whole way, ask too many questions, and insist on pressing the train door button himself (that hasn’t changed!)

I’m so glad I took this photo. Because now? His shoes are so much bigger than mine, 4-5 sizes bigger! His questions are sharper, fewer, and sometimes stay in his head. He walks beside me, but differently now. He likes to be more independent, more grown up. 

And yet, here’s this photo. A small, frozen reminder that once we sat on the overground train, from St. Albans into London side by side, wearing sparkles and Velcro. London buzzing around all around us and I was his whole world for that moment.

This isn’t a post about motherhood being hard or selfless or chaotic. It’s not about losing yourself or finding yourself or any of that. It’s about the in between.
The quiet, unremarkable moments that pass unnoticed until one day, you look back and feel them deeply. Maybe you’re buying your teenage child new shoes that are larger sizes than your own? Then it suddenly hits you? 

This image? It holds something. Not glamour, not sacrifice just some truth.
A mum in a pair of glittery boots that she chose that morning, and her boy in scruffy trainers that would be outgrown within the month. No filters. Just the two of us moving through the city together. Before the school uniforms, before teen attitudes, before the next stage began.

That’s what motherhood is. Not a role. Not a performance. It’s just a series of ordinary days that become golden when you least expect them to.

So I’m keeping this photo close. Because I like to show it to him and his siblings,  and then say,

“Look. This was us. This was our London – glitter and Velcro.”

This photo doesn’t shout. It doesn’t pose. It simply holds something.
A trace of a season that’s already shifted. A reminder that love lives in the in-between. That we walked together, not perfectly, not always gently! Especially in the London rush hour! Rather, we walked fully, side by side.

And when he walks ahead of me now, in shoes bigger than mine, I’ll still remember the train rides, the glitter and the Velcro, and how time moved quietly between our footsteps.

Hannah xo