You Are First Yourself and Then a Mother

A very special day for MOTHERS from all over the world is coming. Taking this opportunity, I would like to share you a story happened between me and my lovely daughter Claire yesterday afternoon.

I stood in front of the school gate, waiting for my daughter. She did not rush towards me, singing like a happy little bird as usual but walked slowly, schoolbag in her right hand with zips open.

“Mommy, am I fat? Am I not cuter than Emma? Do you love me?” Claire asked with an unsettling voice when I carried her schoolbag with zips closed on my shoulders and held her tiny hand.

These three successive questions really shocked me for a moment, but I soon regained smile and replied “Claire, surely you are not fat. Both of you are pretty girls. Of course, I love you. I love you forever.” I stooped down, looking into her eyes, “Mommy is here for you, you can share everything whenever you want to talk with me. Now let’s get back to the car, I have prepared your favorite lemon tea for you, sweetie.”

“My best friend –Jane was upset because she could?not fit into Princess Anna’s dress (Princess Anna, a character from Disney film FROZEN) and her mother said ‘If you get fatter, I won’t buy you beautiful dresses anymore. You should be slim and cute to wear dresses.’ It really hurt Jane but I did not know how to make her happy.”

I firstly expressed my praise to my daughter for caring about others, and then asked her “What do you think of Jane?”

“She always wears a smile, funny and polite, and studies very hard. I love to be friends with her.” Claire answered without any hesitation, like a disciplined soldier in the army.

My daughter’s words made me feel proud. As a child, she completely comprehends the truth some of girls or women have already forgotten, that we should never lose sight of ourselves. Our bodies are perfect, perfectly made and perfectly sized. I told my daughter how, as you?grew from girlhood to womanhood, some people would judge you on your appearance or shape instead of your heart, but that who you are matters much more than how you look. I urged her never to lose sight of who she is, inside and out, and to ignore the haters, who saw her only as bodies, as objects, as things. Maybe Claire is too young to understand what I said, but she definitely knows I, as a mother, will always be her side and love her.

Happy?Mother’s Day to every great mother!