Being “outed”

My kid keeps “outing” me. Any parent knows it is damn near impossible to have family secrets actually kept secret once you have kids and I knew this broadcast system would eventually kick in after our daughter was born, but jeepers, is nothing sacred anymore?

As our daughter was chatting with a friend over cheese and crackers at the kitchen table, talk turned to chores and helping around the house. Her friend’s mom had a cleaning lady come in occasionally and she wondered if I did, too.

“Do you clean your house?” she asked me. Before I could answer, my daughter did the honours for me:

“Not really.”

Thanks.

At school a few weeks ago, another mom needed to contact me and tracked down my daughter.

“Hey hon, what is your phone number?”

“How should I know?” my daughter shrugged. Great. Now everyone at school knows how delinquent I am in street-proofing our kid. Thanks, honey!

I suppose growing a thicker skin and increasing my comfort level with “sharing” is just something I have to accept. Ahh…the glorious things that motherhood brings!

Add to Cart!

I have been on a bit of an online shopping binge lately so “Add to Cart!” is a phrase I am happily familiar with. It is so fun and satisfying to click that button! Not to mention the knowledge that I will be getting something new – and who doesn’t love that?

Not my daughter, apparently. As she was quietly playing on one of her online stuffed animal communities the other day, she joyfully shouted out “Add to Cart!”. I immediately turned my attention to the computer screen, concerned that she had somehow figured out how to use my credit card (after all, kids do tend to copy the behaviors of their parents). But no, she wasn’t actually buying anything, not with real world money anyway, just with her fake online world money. Whew.

As I began breathing easier and sat back to watch my daughter gleefully doing her “online shopping” I couldn’t help but share her joy. I suppose I should have been thinking about the dangers of having her learn this online habit or perhaps indignant about the way our society teaches children to become consumers at such a young age. But no, it was joy and pride I felt. Like mother, like daughter!

Like Mother, Like Daughter

 

Most women rue the day they recognize their mothers’ traits in themselves, but what about the day you realize your daughter is like you?

 

I sat down at the computer the other day grumbling about my daughter’s habit of disagreeing with me simply for the sake of disagreeing. As I hammered away at my Inbox, deleting email after email without even opening the messages, an uneasy feeling came over me. I noticed my purposeful and stubborn refusal to read these emails was simply because I did not want to succumb to the obligation to read them. Never mind that these were all messages I had requested. The situation suddenly felt unnervingly similar to my daughter’s earlier reactions. It made me stop and think:

 

Could this be a behavior she picked up from me?

 

I shook my head with irritation. I could not possibly agree with a notion like that.