Born, Not Made
Sitting dutifully in her big-girl booster in the back seat of our vehicle, my darling daughter with her beautiful curly blond hair said in an ever-so-distressed voice when she glanced into her reflection in the window after we stepped into the humid morning weather of a rainy Friday...
"Mama...my hair is curly! I want it to be straight!"
I thought surely I would have to wait 'til the teen years to hear a comment like that! Apparently the neverending female self-conflict between straight and curly hair is a part of the female DNA and not a learned behavior.
Hair-haters are born, not made.
Contorting my face to hide my obvious grin and stifling an audible giggle, I apologized to my baby girl for the fact that she has my hair, my skin, and my tendency to boss people around. She didn't seem to understand. "That's just the way God made you." A staple answer in our house to the neverending questions of pre-schoolers that have boggled our minds on more than a million occasions.
Earlier in the morning, before the dreaded curly haired fiasco, we also heard, "But Mama, I won't look pretty in that dress!" Again, are we four years old or 14??
Two answers were called for in that occasion...
Answer #1: "But honey, YOU are pretty, so you look pretty in every dress!"
She didn't buy it, even though it is the obvious truth.
So, we resorted to a reality check. Sometimes laying it all out on the line is simply required.
Answer #2: "Well, sometimes you have to wear clothes that you just don't like." (I'm sure Trinny and Susannah would scold me for keeping something in my closet that I didn't love... but come on, who in all reality can keep up with What Not To Wear...)
With arms crossed in front of her chest, an obvious pouty lip protruding from her face, head bowed in irritation and eyes looking up through the tiniest of slits, I heard a distinct, "Hmph" before she turned, walked away, and conceded defeat. Poor girl.
That is life as a woman. Welcome to our world. Let us unite.
~lk
"Mama...my hair is curly! I want it to be straight!"
I thought surely I would have to wait 'til the teen years to hear a comment like that! Apparently the neverending female self-conflict between straight and curly hair is a part of the female DNA and not a learned behavior.
Hair-haters are born, not made.
Contorting my face to hide my obvious grin and stifling an audible giggle, I apologized to my baby girl for the fact that she has my hair, my skin, and my tendency to boss people around. She didn't seem to understand. "That's just the way God made you." A staple answer in our house to the neverending questions of pre-schoolers that have boggled our minds on more than a million occasions.
Earlier in the morning, before the dreaded curly haired fiasco, we also heard, "But Mama, I won't look pretty in that dress!" Again, are we four years old or 14??
Two answers were called for in that occasion...
Answer #1: "But honey, YOU are pretty, so you look pretty in every dress!"
She didn't buy it, even though it is the obvious truth.
So, we resorted to a reality check. Sometimes laying it all out on the line is simply required.
Answer #2: "Well, sometimes you have to wear clothes that you just don't like." (I'm sure Trinny and Susannah would scold me for keeping something in my closet that I didn't love... but come on, who in all reality can keep up with What Not To Wear...)
With arms crossed in front of her chest, an obvious pouty lip protruding from her face, head bowed in irritation and eyes looking up through the tiniest of slits, I heard a distinct, "Hmph" before she turned, walked away, and conceded defeat. Poor girl.
That is life as a woman. Welcome to our world. Let us unite.
~lk
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