Whether it is the expression of disgust on her face or the actual words out of her mouth, my daughter always seems to have unflattering remarks about my clothes and shoes. “Why did you buy these,” she asked recently as she held my shoes at eye level and shifted her menacing glare from me to the shoes, back and forth. When I ask for her opinion on special occasions, though, I usually generally get a favorable response. On other everyday professional wear, she simply tells me that I look “ok” or “not bad” or tells me I look like someone’s mom, which is technically accurate. There is nothing spectacular about my wardrobe. I get it. I’m a mom. I wear mom clothes.
What I find surprising, however, is how increasingly I find my clothes and accessories in her bedroom or see her walking out or walking in with my clothes or shoes on, my scarves adorning her neck or my own winter coat that she is wearing. At times, she even dares to tell me that my garments look better on her than they do on me. Even more surprising is when I go away with her and she opens her suitcase with some of my clothes packed or when I find shoes that I did not pack in the room, wondering how they got there. She reminds me that I bought them so that they could be worn. Otherwise, what is the point? That is what I am told.
On the subject of make-up, forget it! She conveniently reminds me that I said that what is mine is hers when I dare question why my things are missing. Same with hair products. My hair is so short that my products should expire before they are depleted, yet that is never the case. She questions why I even need hair products since I seem to be “allergic to hair.” She tells me that I cut it so often that she questions whether I want hair at all on my head.
Despite having my things missing, finding empty bottles of products that I never used, or being told that my sense of fashion is “simply average,” I enjoy being a girl mom. There is nothing I wouldn’t give to my baby girl. I learn from her sense of fashion and even laugh at the caustic remarks she comes up with so quickly and even her retorts when I try to defend myself.
Mini-me is better than me.
