my face, my fault
tertia posted on this topic a while back, it is probably a universal theme amongst mothers.
how much effort should i make with my own appearance?
what is an effort?
it can range from
1. brushing teeth
2. brushing hair
3. taking off makeup from night before
4. styling hair
5. applying chapstick
6. applying lipstick
7. applying mascara
8. applying rouge, and coverup while infront of a mirror (as opposed to using jasper’s drool bubbles as a mirror)
9. applying eye shadow
10. applying lip glass
i can confidently say that i do number one. usually number two as well. (i can do that while sitting on the toilet) maybe thrice a week i get up to a four, and once a week maybe an eight or nine.
why is this.
i really don’t care how i look. i always get a bit surprised at people’s reactions to me when i am looking disheveled, but i know they love me for me. and if they don’t, hey, i am 35 now, i can say I DON"T CARE and MEAN IT!
makeup is not essential to my life right now. my mothering abilities, patience, temper, insight, love, etc, (and i know this from experience) is not affected by the amount of makeup i wear. if it was, i would be a tammy faye.
even wearing my nice clothes, i don’t, mainly because i am still horrified by how i look in them, and secondly, it makes more sense for me to wear easily cleaned jeans, sweats and shirts right now. if i am on the floor playing with my kidlets, the last thing i want to worry about is keeping my legs crossed. so goodbye to everything but the very washable and longer cute skirts. i need to lunge to catch errant bodies, and toys. why bother getting upset with the smear and dirt marks the filthy three leave on me when i could focus on the stains on the sofa?
i don’t always look groomed. i never care. my appearance reflects my life right now. definitely, you don’t have to look like me, look at all those new mothers out there who look divine. heck, i looked great when sebastian was a toddler. i don’t mean to be an advertisement for "parenting hell" (a) because i am not getting paid for it and b) because i don’t think i am in parenting hell). my look right now is what works for my life.
i look at other mums with newer kids who have taken the time to put on their makeup and i know it is just a case of different priorities. i could do that if i wanted to, but right now, i don’t. i’d rather take the five minutes and read. talk with charles, or a friend. my face, my choice.
looking back at pictures of myself, i occasionally wonder why i don’t make more of an effort, but hindsight is 20/20.
jasper just vomitted. it has been that sort of day.
lastly, thank you for all the kind things written in the comments section. v.v. nice to read on a day like today.
