Kristine Nyborg

Photographer

www.kristinenyborg.ca

Relentlessness of Motherhood

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Location: Ottawa, Canada

Nationality: Norwegian

Biography: Kristine Nyborg is a Norwegian freelance photographer based in Ottawa, Canada. She pursues long-term projects focused on the intersection of mental health and sustainability, placing people’s relationships and their own voices in the... MORE

In September 2014 I gave birth ...r that. Photo: Kristine Nyborg

In September 2014 I gave birth to twins in Oslo, Norway. They were premature and as the doctors and nurses ran off with them to the NICU I was left with just their placentas. The midwife, a twin herself, said the placentas were beautiful and explained how they call them the tree of life; the veins are the branches and the chord is the trunk. Trees took on a different meaning after that. Photo: Kristine Nyborg

25 cloth diapers hang to dry on...dfills. Photo: Kristine Nyborg

25 cloth diapers hang to dry on a balcony overlooking Coquitlam, BC, Canada. Mount Baker can be seen in the background during sunset, February 22, 2015. Babies use about 2000 diapers a year. In Wales they built a 2.2 kilometre road using 100,000 used diapers, but until that becomes the norm diapers are filling up the landfills. Photo: Kristine Nyborg

My daughter minutes before loos...urhood. Photo: Kristine Nyborg

My daughter minutes before loosing her front tooth on the morning of December 21 in Ottawa, Canada. During the pandemic our children collectively lost twelve teeth and we had a hard time finding coins as the local stores stopped using physical money in our neighbourhood. Photo: Kristine Nyborg

Eating watermelons at the lake ..., 2019. Photo: Kristine Nyborg

Eating watermelons at the lake during a short break from learning to swim near Peterborough, ON, Canada, August 20, 2019. Photo: Kristine Nyborg

Places of solace for mothers be..., 2020. Photo: Kristine Nyborg

Places of solace for mothers become the bathroom, the kitchen floor, the closet, or finding ways to keep them occupied and happy while carving out personal space in their company. The 40 dollar inflatable pool carried two summers and many hours of being alone together during the pandemic. Ottawa, ON, July 10, 2020. Photo: Kristine Nyborg

My son learning about gravity i...danger. Photo: Kristine Nyborg

My son learning about gravity in Burnaby, BC, Canada on July 21 2016. Motherhood is a series of interruptions. It is learning to calm the central nervous system from being in a constant state of arousal while teaching young minds to understand their emotional landscapes decades before they finish developing the pre-frontal cortex. It is about understanding how personalities work together to anticipate the next tipping point and allow for just the right amount of danger. Photo: Kristine Nyborg

All the little things add up. L..., 2016. Photo: Kristine Nyborg

All the little things add up. Like spending 10 minutes three times a day cleaning up the mess under the table. That adds up to about 23 full workdays a year only doing this one task. Motherhood has no paid overtime or salary, nor is it a vacation. Dinner on the floor, Burnaby, BC, January 2, 2016. Photo: Kristine Nyborg

Coming to terms with leaving th...Canada. Photo: Kristine Nyborg

Coming to terms with leaving the playground before being ready makes for an extra ten minutes of waiting while trying to keep calm under pressure on August 15, 2018 in Burnaby, BC, Canada. Photo: Kristine Nyborg

Their concept of time is a bit ...as half-an-hour. Sometimes that

Their concept of time is a bit fluid, so when I say ten minutes I can say eight minutes five minutes later and they will keep going until ten minutes was half-an-hour. Sometimes that

Big brother, aged seven, reads ...ndemic. Photo: Kristine Nyborg

Big brother, aged seven, reads to little sister and little brother, both aged six, on Monday, January 18, before school in Ottawa, Canada. During the pandemic the siblings grew closer than ever before, both physically and emotionally. The children spent 18 months with only each other for company before returning to physical school in the fall. They were in the 21 percent of children in their school district who were kept home for virtual school because of the pandemic. Photo: Kristine Nyborg

Private Story

Relentlessness of Motherhood

Copyright Kristine Nyborg 2024

Updated May 2022

Location Ottawa, Canada

Topics Motherhood

Summary

It’s almost a performance how we speak about motherhood in public. We put the spotlight on the rosy parts that tug at the heart, but often edit out the parts that hurt or are messy. While there is so much love and sweetness in motherhood it is also a period of incredible growth both on the part of the children and the mom. This change comes about under the pressures of societal expectations, our own expectations and the work-life balance. That is what I think about when I make photographs of family life.

The everyday is beautiful, the images we remember are the ones we pick for the family album and point to as we venture down memory lane over tea and biscuits decades later. But in the middle of this idealised version of reality stands the mother, holding the reins, making sure one has a clean shirt, another the wrapped present for the birthday party, a third the right size shoes, and everyone has had their lunch. When I look at mothers I don’t see superheroes. I see regular people being made to pick up all the pieces others leave behind. I see humans brought to the brink of exhaustion because changing learned behaviour is hard.

Being a mother is both the most invigorating and the most exhausting thing I’ve ever been a part of. I love every minute, yet sometimes scream on the inside after the umpteenth question when bedtime was two hours ago. Motherhood is often a dichotomy and learning to embrace that has made all the difference to me.

I had three children over the span of 15 months, so motherhood was in a way sprung on me with excessive force. I go to bed exhausted every night, yet every morning they are the people I’m the most excited to see. They have taught me more about living than any other season in my life.