Wednesday, March 27, 2013

The "Dress Up" game.

It was one of those perfectly routine mornings. 

Wake up, shower, make breakfast, get their lunches made, wake up the kids, get them ready and 8.05am sharp, start the walk to school.  Interestingly the school rush hour sometimes makes it longer to take the car, so on days like today, when the sky is a bright clear blue, we choose to walk. 

Those days are gone when I could drop him off to school, wait to say bye and sometimes even get a light hug or a high five. In fact the hugs stopped 4 years ago, and now I am lucky if I can get a casual wave, which in the "almost teenager" world means, "Bye Mom, I love you too!" or so I have been told. 

These days, we walk and stop about 100 yards before we reach the crossing guard, and say our non hugging byes. He walks with a casual cool look, while I wait, and pretend to play with his little sis as he crosses the road and is almost at the end of the side walk. Ok, you can say it,  a little over protective and that's okay, after all these days are not going to come back. He has most of his life to be a grown up, but just a few more years to be a kid. 

As I walk back, an everyday Mom greets me with a "Hi, how are you?" Usually, that's the extent of our conversation. I don't know her name, and I doubt it if she knows mine. But today was different, she paused and exchanged a sentence or two with my little one. And then asked me, "where do you work?" I said, "I work at home, I work for my kids." She smiled and said, "that's really nice, that's the best job." 

She made me very happy, I was enjoying my blissful state, and she said "but you're always looking fresh and dressed up." 

Dress up for no one, but yourself! 
A showered look and a pair of clean clothes, isn't that the basic hygiene we need to maintain and try to teach our kids too. 

Well, at that point the look on my face was "Huh! What did she just say?" Thankfully what came out from my mouth was a shade smarter. I told her with a fake smile, 
"I dress up to go to work, just like you do." 

That's all it took. We smiled and said our byes and went our ways. I am sure she thought of me as a smug, and that's okay. I honestly don't care. 

Few hours pass by and its time for pick up, I see a mom, she was waiting in Valet pick up, stepped out to talk to another parent and she was in her PJ's. I am not trying to be judgmental or saying that I have a great wardrobe or an amazing sense of fashion. On the contrary, I don't wear designer stuff, most of the stuff I buy is from wherever they have a good sale going, but I refuse to go to school with a "straight out of bed look." 

The sad truth is I have never seen a dad dropping of their kids in a "straight out of bed look." Why do we mom's create this image for ourselves? 

Being a SAHM mom is absolutely every reason to look and feel pretty.  It doesn't matter what dress size you wear or what is the color of your complexion. You are beautiful so dress up for yourself.

Dress up, like you would, if you were going to work in the real world; because you are.  

Today was just one of those Imperfectly Perfect days! 


8 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks, always a pleasure to see you here.

      It's what I say when we meet... we got to keep it going and do it for ourselves.

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  2. I totally agree with you, every word of it! Why can't we dress up even if it is just to chaperone our kids?!! Loved your attitude!!

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    1. Absolutely Ruma.

      We are chaperone very important people so got to good, Right!

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  3. I'm not saying it's an every day thing, but there's times when I look more "polished" when it's time to pick her up than when I dropped her off. You really shower *before* your kids go to school?
    ♡ Jill

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for stopping by Jill. I agree, I am not always color co-ordinated but shower and a clean set of clothes :) Good to see u here.

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  4. I think you/we do feel better when you/we take the time to put ourselves together. It doesn't matter if that is just a shower and clean clothes. It could be make up and a great outfit, but it doesn't have to be. You have look how you want to look, just as you would want to speak how you'd like to be heard. I think our clothing and style are just one more form of speech.

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  5. Hi Michelle,

    You just echoed my mom's thoughts. She always says, "eat what you like, but dress the way you want the world to perceive you." And I think, even without realizing, just seeing her dress up right no matter how tough the day ahead is.. just kind of instilled the thought in me.

    But yes, there have been times/phases of life,, when I chose to ignore it all. I am just glad that I pulled it back together.

    Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to write.

    It keeps this blog going.

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