 My name is Margarita Santos. I'm a Sergeant of Marines. I am a 3043 Supply Administration. I'm Lance Corporal Rachel Cook. I'm a soldier in the Australian Army. I work for the Royal Australian Corps of Transport and I enlisted in 2006. What is it like being a mom in the Australian Defence Force? It's challenging, purely because you're balancing family. I'm a reservist, so I've still got a civilian job. But once I'm in the green and I'm at work, I am just another soldier ready to start work and do my job. So I'm from Brisbane. I am a nurse in my civil job. I've probably been nursing for about 25 years. I have two children. My eldest is 23 and he's a police officer in Mount Isa. And I have a 19-year-old still at home and he's a leading hand at the airport. He has been very affected with COVID, but he's now back into it and working very hard. So do you think being a mum in the military would be the same as being a mum in any other profession? If you're just a working mum, it's just very difficult in general because you spend long periods of time away from your children. You work all day and all you have is the night time and they're sleeping during the night time. So what time do you really have with your children? But even then I think stay at home mums, they still have it difficult. They just face different challenges than working mums do. I just think being a parent. I am from California, born and raised. I am married and I have one son. He's a year and five months. What were your thoughts when you found out you were going to be a mum? Oh wow, at first I was shocked and I probably really wasn't totally accepting until I had the baby and I looked at him and thought, oh he's helpless, like he can't do anything. And then my second thought, because I don't have any brothers, I'm like what am I going to do with a boy? And I said it out loud to my sister and she says you just love him. And I thought oh well, I can do that. For Mother's Day we would normally just go for a bike ride and have either breakfast or lunch wherever that meal fell. And then I would just, really just for me, reflect on how my children are now young adults and how they're contributing to the world, they're happy, they're functional. And I just think really that I'm probably the luckiest mum in the world to have two great kids that can do that. Mother's Day to me means just the day that you're able to really celebrate your mother and just be able to thank her for everything that she's done for you. For me personally, you know, as a kid I always looked forward to Mother's Day because even though I appreciate my mom every single day, it's just one day that I can give her a little gift to let her know, you know, with something materialistic that I do appreciate her and I love her very much. What's the most rewarding thing about being a parent? I would say the most rewarding thing about being a parent or just being a mother is just being able to watch them grow. I think that's very nice and just like you said earlier, they grow really fast and I feel like I just had him a few days ago and he was a little baby and now seeing him through FaceTime just running around and everyone having to chase him so I think that's the best reward, just seeing your children grow. I would like to think that my children are just a little bit proud of what their mum has done and contributed to the Army and yeah, I just hope that they're just that little bit proud. You won't understand exactly what I'm saying but if you were to see this video in the future, I'd want him to hear that I'm sorry that I left him but that everything, all the choices that I made is for the betterment of his life and I just have to get myself together because I said I was going to cry on camera. So a piece of advice that I would give to all mothers is that you got this, you can do it if you have dreams or aspirations that you want to follow, just go for it even though it's going to be difficult, it's going to be hard, you can do it. I'd like to wish all the mums and Happy Mother's Day and I hope you spoil your mums' children. Do you want to say like Happy Mother's Day together or something? Yeah, you can. Happy Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day.