AFLW star Renee Garing reveals battle with Mum guilt and self-pressure

Renee Garing was determined from the get-go to return to football after her pregnancy. She opens up on the realities and the struggles she faced on and off the field.

Parker Garing was just two weeks old when his mum returned to footy training. And he’s been there every step of the way as Cats midfielder Renee Garing eyes an AFLW return

Parker was just two weeks old when Renee Garing returned to the footy club.

Renee’s husband, Tony, dropped the pair off at Geelong — Garing unable to drive after a caesarean section birth last May — as the Cats started their AFLW pre-season.

“I just did Monday nights to start off with — that was our strength session,” Garing recalls.

“He came, but it was good for me to get out of the house. Tony would drop me off and then pick me up. I’d try and do some gym, go to the meeting, would feed him in the back of the meeting.”

Complete with sound effects.

“He was a noisy eater,” the Cats ballwinner laughs.

“I think that whole experience was probably a good lesson for the younger girls, on the consistency that’s required when it comes to being a mum.”

An elite netballer before turning her hand to AFL Women’s, Garing was determined from the get-go to have a real crack at returning to football after her pregnancy with the long-awaited Parker.

AFLW player Renee Garing and her baby son, Parker

“They were really supportive from the get-go, and right throughout the pregnancy I could be as involved as I wanted to be, or if I was too tired I could take the step back,” she said.

“I had a very good pregnancy after all, and I was given a game day role doing the rotations. So I felt like I was contributing a lot, still.”

Upon her return, eyeing a potential spot last season, she admits there were moments. Moments of celebration, pride. Moments of doubt, too.

“I think the hardest bit was trying to make sure I was finding the balance between ‘am I doing too much?’ … that whole ‘guilty mum’ feeling,” Garing said.

Renee Garing was determined from the get-go to have a real crack at returning to football after her pregnancy with the long-awaited Parker. Picture: David Caird

“Do I need to be doing this? Should I be pushing? There was no pressure from the club – it was me wanting to see how I’d go and if I could get back to a position where I could play.

“We had some challenges where I was worrying about is he getting enough breastmilk, supply, and the whole (thought process of) ‘would your supply be OK if you weren’t (training)?’.

“Those things come into your mind and those are challenges. He hasn’t been the best sleeper – is me choosing to come impacting him in that way?

“But being such a social and active baby, we come in here and (he sees everyone).

“In those moments, it was ‘I’m choosing this’. Everyone just needs to do their own thing, and some people need to stay home, I’m choosing to do this and it was that whole conversation with Tony as well, if I don’t get back and don’t get selected, which I didn’t in the end, is it all worth it?

Renee Garing. Picture: Getty Images

Renee Garing. Picture: Getty Images

“I had some internal battles with that along the way, because I’d worked so hard. But it was (worth it all).”

Garing had maintained her list spot last season but is still pursuing a return to AFLW — hopefully in the upcoming ninth season.

“Hopefully I’ll get back this year,” she said.

“And if I don’t, the journey has been worth it and there’s been so many more benefits and positives out of it even though it wasn’t the fairytale to get back within that one year.”

More pressing is her first Mother’s Day as a mother and, within a couple of weeks, Parker’s first birthday. “It’s just amazing,” Garing said.