My pregnancy has taken over my brain and my blog. Blogging isn't happening as regularly these days simply because I am big and tired and a bit uninspired, but all is well. I saw the community midwife this morning, and she confirmed what I already knew...the baby is still breech. I am trying to maintain positive thinking. There is still time for her to turn, so hopefully she will somersault soon. Sophie has been cheer leading to her through my skin, "Baby, get your head down! Head down! Feet up, babe! And STOP kicking my mom in her platter." She means 'bladder,' of course, but the baby doesn't know the difference, and apparently she's already not into obeying her big sister. She hasn't budged from this head-up position in over a month... but we are maintaining that positive attitude!
I had coffee this morning at a friend's house with several other local mums, and it was really lovely...and not just because she served carrot cake (which totally counts as one of my "five a day"). It was nice to sit down with grown ups and chat about grown up things without having any kids tugging on me. Of course we did discuss our children some, and one of the topics that came up is how (unfortunately) little girls seem to want to grow up way too quickly these days. I really love the fact that my girls seem to be very content with being little girls most of the time. They don't seem to be in too much of a hurry to grow up and be trendy and horrid, but I cannot completely shield them from the world and the media.
A couple of nights ago, Emma and Sophie were in the bathtub with a slew of Barbie dolls and I overheard a conversation that really bothered me. One of the girls was saying (about one of the Barbies), "Have you seen Tatiana? She is SO HOT! She is the hottest thing in town. Just look at how gorgeous she is!" I stepped into the bathroom and feinted clueless-ness by asking, "What is 'hot'? What does that mean?"
"Oh, MUM!" Emma rolled her eyes at me, "Don't you know what it means to be hot?"
Sophie chimed in, "You know like: Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me? Don't you wish your girlfriend was a freak like me?"
At this point, I did a truly excellent job of hiding the fact that I was completely mortified and maintained my clueless persona, "Yes, but what does it mean to be 'hot'?"
One of them answered, "You know 'hot' means gorgeous, the most beautiful, and fabulous."
So I asked, "Who decides who is hot?"
The both answered almost simultaneously, "TV!"
UGH! Already?? They are five and seven. I think I asked then, "Is it better to be hot or kind?" and thankfully they both answered that it was better to be kind, but I wondered if that was just what they knew I wanted to hear. I started to go into a bit of a lecture about how TV has no right to say who is pretty and who isn't, but I could see they just wanted to be left alone to have their bath in peace with th ever-hot Tatiana.
Last night when we were in the bathroom getting ready for bed, Sophie and I had a very encouraging conversation. I asked her out of the blue, "So, Sophie, are YOU hot?"
"No, she said, "I can't be bothered with that." She went on to tell me that even though she's not bothered about being hot, there are still loads of boys in her class who want to marry her because she so nice and so much fun to be around. (Apparently, out of all the boys who have told her they want to marry her, Harry Lynch is still the only one who stands a chance.) This exchange made me feel much better about having my girls out there in the big, bad world. I know that when they hear these things in school and on the media, it is natural and probably important for them to 'try them on' in their imaginative play, but I was relieved to hear that in the real world of being five, Sophie rates being fun and nice much more highly than being 'hot.' Maybe this means George and I are doing a good job in terms of raising healthy girls at my house... just maybe.
No comments:
Post a Comment