Thursday, July 10, 2008

Pure Ego

It won't last much longer, that stunned, mouth agape look I get sometimes when I announce that Helen is my daughter. Once the new friend is breathing again, the following comments are usually made:

You could be sisters!
You don't look old enough to have a child.
I'll bet you get this all the time, but you really look young.

I smile, reply with "It's genetic," or "I love what I do, and it keeps me young."

This assumption is irritating and pleasurable, like scratching the sole of an itchy foot. For Helen, it's just irritating. Sure, I'm flattered that people think I look so young, but I've also spent the past 17 years (I count gestation) wrapped up in the careful and delicate needlework of being a mother and raising a decent human being. Give me some credit.

How will I feel when the comments wane? I'll whine then too, because that's what I do best. Maybe that's why I seem so young.

3 comments:

Jodi Anderson said...

As you know, I follow the iPhone blog too, and ... just a few days ago I was, um, thinking the same sentiments that you related here as I looked at photos of you and Helen. I wasn't thinking "sisters", but noticing that you look a good ten years younger than I. (Perhaps that says more about me than you. *wink*)

THAT SAID, I think that youth *on the outside* has more to do with the way you live your life (and I don't mean what you eat and how you work out) in other ways.

I can't seem to put into words what I mean, except that I thought "she looks like she is living her life". I hope that makes sense.

Indigo Bunting said...

I was on your phone blog the other day too and was stunned by how much alike the two of you look. (Both gorgeous, I may add, but that's just an opinion.)

Talia Reed said...

When she has kids people will be saying "that's your grandma? She could be your mother!" So it won't stop.