You haven't met my mum

Some people, who have wonderful lives,
Go home every night to children and wives,
Have a healthy bank balance and a holiday home,
In their lives misery is generally unknown.
Then something strikes and the world falls apart,
The smallest of things they will take to heart,
And rather than chasing their problems out of town,
They’ll throw in the towel, let them get ‘em down.
The smallest of things can break a human spirit,
The tiniest problems brings a whole lot more with it.
When these people lose hope and give up on fun,
I say to them, “You haven’t met my mum.”

The car’s broken down, the kids will miss school,
You’ve spent a whole morning acting the fool,
Crying your eyes out when there’s an easy fix,
Life isn’t so hard when you just know the tricks.
The kids are being naughty, it’s driving you mad,
You don’t understand why they’re acting so bad.
To top it all off, the washing machine’s broke,
So stressed you might just induce a stroke!
You jump to say you’ve had enough of things,
Can’t deal with the hassle normal life brings.
And when self-pity takes over, they’re feeling glum,
I say to them, “You haven’t met my mum.”

So mum got married at 18, to a man who left,
Had to piece together kids both feeling bereft,
Still she powered on with the force of a panzer,
Until 8 years later, she was struck with cancer.
Despite things being hard, unbelievably tough,
She somehow managed to always keep her chin up.
Us kids were a pain, sometimes drove her mad,
Acting out because we suddenly didn’t have dad,
Despite our behaviour, she powered through,
Because that’s what my mum always manages to do.
So when people moan, tell me they’ve have enough,
And that they think their life is just too tough,
Their tiny problems make them wretch and hurl,
And they tell me they’re too weak to face the world,
There’s only really one response that will ever come:
I say to them, “You haven’t met my mum.”