I have to be honest with you, I’m not going to lie. There are times when looking much younger than my age is rather frustrating.
When a patient walks into the ultrasound room and asks me, “Are you sure you’re old enough to be doing this?”
Seriously, if I wasn’t old enough to be here, I wouldn’t be here. I’m pretty SURE.
When going out to a bar or club, and getting everyone there carded, because I’m the one that looks under-age. That’s inconvenient.
When I go clothes shopping, and I can’t find anything I like in my ‘age group’, so I check out the kids section. That’s mostly just annoying.
But when I take my son to the mall, and I want to let him play around in the play place, it is probably the worst of all. I’ve been trying, because everyone tells me if I go out and meet other parents, other moms, I can make a network of friends with whom I have something in common.
There’s one small problem with that.
All of the moms at the mall see me with my young son and immediately turn their backs, turn up their noses, turn off their interest. No one smiles at us, no one asks us any questions. No “How old is your baby?” or, “How cute… is he walking yet?” They summarily ignore us, and it took me a while to figure out why.
I don’t look old enough to be his mother. I don’t LOOK old enough. No one bothers to find out how old I actually am. I look like a teenage mom that had her baby just out of high school. Or better yet, I look like the babysitter, lucky enough to get a gorgeous, well-behaved boy to take out with me! Who wants to network with the babysitter?
I walk up to, and chat with just about everyone that is there. Make comments about having fun, and what an awesome place this is. How much Ronan loves it, and how it tires him out so well. I get a polite smile, a nod of assent, and then a cold shoulder.
I think I need to get a tee-shirt made that says, “Yes I’m old enough to be his mom. YES, I’m REALLY his MOM!”
Not that it would help.
Brock told me to go to the nearest high school and make friends with the ‘easy’ girls. “They’ll be moms soon enough.” Ha. Ha. Ha.
Now, all that being said. Just because I look young doesn’t mean I’m a bad mom, nor does it mean that I’m not worthy of getting to know. Some of my VERY best friends are older moms, and they like me just fine. It makes me wonder if girls my age that have kids go through the same thing, or if it’s just some peculiar Charlotte breed of snobbery. I guess time will tell.
