There’s a smell in the air!

Our house was filled with the smell of baking delights last night as we made some cakes to take to a Macmillan Coffee morning today.  With work, I wasn't able to attend the coffee morning in person, so we popped the cakes across before work and school and made our donation.

It’s funny how a smell can take you to another place isn't it?

I had a firelighter in one of the kitchen cupboards over the summer, in preparation for a BBQ.  Each time I opened the drawer above the cupboard I smelt the odour that kind of paraffin scent and it took me there.  It took me to Uganda.

There are lots of smells that remind me of Uganda.

Little scent triggers can crop up at any moment of the day and I feel like I’m there.  I can even relate it to certain aspects of a visit. 

We went to the Welsh History Museum, St Fagan’s, over the summer.  As we walked past the old houses, with their fires fiercely burning, I am reminded of Uganda.  That fire in the air scent.  Everyone out in the villages; open air kitchens; Ugandan cooking all around.  It’s not quite ‘THE’ smell, you need a trip to Uganda to experience it for yourself, but it’s a close enough match.

Smells can be a trigger for our children’s memories too. 

For lil Miss L, it’s rice boiling on the hob.  As the steam rises, she breathes it in and voices that it’s her memory of Uganda.  It’s a good memory. 

There are many more too.  Not all of them will be good.  Not all of them we will be aware of.  Just knowing they exist is a help as we can support our children in reliving the good and working through the not so good memories as they dance through their minds.

We all have our own personal scent memories from our childhoods.  What’s yours?  Most of them will be opportunities to recall happy times but when our children didn’t have the best start in life, we have to be mindful that a scent can trigger an upsetting memory.  We can’t stop that from happening but we can help manage the reaction and offer reassurance that the time has passed and is in the past.  We can also offer opportunities to link new memories to old scents and create a new catalogue of recollection.  We very often fill our house with the aroma of Ugandan cooking and then have a good time sharing with friends or simply being together as family.