My son (depicted in the drawing by one of his sisters) was sitting in our living room recently staring at a picture of my husband and I that we had taken on a not-so-long-ago cruise. After examining this photo for a few moments my son said, "Mom ... in this picture, you were wearing a lot of makeup, " to which I said, "Yes." He then said, "And your hair looked better, " to which I said, "Yes, it did." After a short pause, he looked me over and asked, "When did you stop caring about your hair?" To which I responded, "I don't know."
This is my life. Day in and day out, reality checks. And these aren't necessarily routine observations that I make about myself, but the constant and sometimes insensitive comments and observations from those around me. What does a 10 year old boy know about hair, anyway?
My children never hesitate to tell me when my breath stinks, that my teeth are yellow looking, when my lipstick is too bright, that my perfume stinks or that my outfits are "not cool". I don't know when I became such a mess, but I'm afraid it was a long time ago and it is only now that I am becoming seriously aware of it.
On the Upside, I'm pretty sure that I still look good from far away. When I start looking bad, even through binoculars ... then I'll really start to worry.